Destiny is reportedly coming soon to Android and iOS
Destiny, the hit first-person looter-shooter series from the creators of Halo, is set to get a dedicated mobile game for Android and iOS.
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Google Maps Platform now lets AR games route characters, integrate elevation and biomes
Google last year revamped its Maps Platform API and also catered it towards AR gaming. Many of these experiences, like Pokémon Go, take advantage of location data and today Google is adding three new features to makes games more immersive, realistic, and powerful.
World Health Organization to announce ‘gaming disorder’ as a mental health condition
At a time when there’s increasing focus on ‘digital health’ – ensuring that usage of devices like smartphones doesn’t take over our lives – gaming addiction is to be officially classified as a disease …
Jurassic World Alive roaring to Android and iOS with AR dinosaurs, Pokémon GO-like gameplay
Gigantic dinosaurs may soon be roaming the planet once again — at least on Android and iOS. Universal Studios and Montreal-based video game company Ludia have teamed up to create Jurassic World Alive. The title is a new augmented reality game launching this spring, and the premise is similar to Niantic’s Pokémon GO.
Google launches ‘Change the Game’ initiative to diversify mobile gaming in Play Store
Google today launched a new initiative to bring more inclusivity into mobile gaming. “Change the Game” conducted interesting research into how women play and the real-world effects that a gender gap has on games. In turn, Google is planning diversity programs, partnerships, and research throughout 2018, starting by highlighting games on the Play Store.
X-Files game coming to Android and iOS in February, alongside season 11 of TV show
Hard to believe, but next year will be the 25th anniversary of The X-Files. To celebrate the event, and the premiere of season 11 of the TV show in January, a new mobile game will be launched the following month.
South Park: Phone Destroyer Android game launched, with in-app purchases up to $70
We first saw a trailer for the first proper smartphone South Park game back in June. The freemium game South Park: Phone Destroyer is now available for free download – though with some expensive in-app purchase options …
Google Pixel XL and Samsung Galaxy S8 closing the gap on Apple’s mobile games monetization
Developers have long paid much closer attention to Apple’s platform due to the sole fact that people are more likely to fork over cash on an iPhone compared to most Android devices. Now, new data is showing that the gap is finally closing, at least on some devices.
Sony’s new ‘PlayLink’ multiplayer games will use phones & tablets as second-screen controllers for PS4
As part of E3, Sony today announced it will launch a new collection of games branded “PlayLink” that will support cross-platform gameplay experiences between PS4 and mobile devices including Android devices. The games will be built with a second screen experience and group play in mind, meaning they’ll take full advantage of opportunities for touchscreen controls, cameras on mobile devices, multiple devices and more.
The games will work together with smartphones and tablets via a companion app that Sony confirmed will be available for both iOS and Android. For the most part, the games appear to use mobile devices as controllers, offering a second screen experience while playing games with others on a PS4 in the living room:
Trailer shows upcoming Futurama mobile game ‘containing new episodes’ [Video]
When Futurama creator Matt Groening talked about the upcoming iOS and Android game back in February, he teased that it will effectively contain some entirely new episodes.
We’re gonna sneak some more Futurama episodes in there on whatever device people are gonna be using.
The company has now released a trailer showing that the game will indeed live up to this promise …
Full-featured version of The Sims coming to Android and iOS ‘soon’ [Video]
Fans of The Sims got a taste of the simulation on Android from The Sims Freeplay, but the freemium app fell a long way short of the full desktop experience. EA is promising to correct that in The Sims Mobile.
The developer says that the new mobile app will support all the features of the original PC game from 17 years ago …
Google’s Chief Game Designer departs, cites ‘big, consequential games’ that ‘failed to materialize’
Back in 2013, Google hired a Chief Game Designer after releasing augmented reality title Ingress under its Niantic division the year prior. Noah Falstein announced yesterday that he’s left the position, while alluding to the seeming state of games at Google: that the company has no particular interest in making them…
Goodbye productivity! You can now play ‘Solitaire’ and ‘Tic-tac-toe’ right in Google Search
From Doodles marking significant occasions to countless Easter Eggs, Google is quite a whimsical company. The latest fun additions add solitaire and tic-tac-toe right into Search on both mobile and desktop. Just try not to get too distracted.
Sony forms ForwardWorks corporation to bring its PlayStation games to mobile
It’s 2016, billions of smartphones are in use across the globe, and traditional video game companies are only just coming around to the idea that there’s some money to be made from smartphone gaming. Nintendo only recently launched its first mobile app, and plans to release a more familiar character-based game soon. Sony, likewise is about to make another foray in to the world of smartphone-based gaming with its newly-formed corporation, ForwardWorks.
Android gaming gets a boost w/ streaming game demos, indie apps collection, & gameplay recording/streaming
Google is announcing several big Android gaming updates at this year’s Game Developers Conference. A majority of them will be user facing, like app streaming and more social features in Play Games, while others will help developers market and add new features to their games.
Crowd-support project wants to turn Monument Valley in to official LEGO sets
Monument Valley is undoubtedly one of the best, and most attractive, puzzle games to ever hit the Play Store. Its gorgeous Escher-esque art and smooth, minimalist animation ensures that it’ll almost certainly gain ‘legendary’ status among the mobile gaming community. Now, with the help of a crowd-support project on LEGO Ideas, it could become immortalized in the form of an official LEGO set.
The concept was created by LEGO Ideas user Isometry, and, if you were worried that it’ll just be a static set of aesthetically pleasing geometric structures, your fears are miss-placed. The aim is to make them interactive.
My Lego Ideas project is inspired by the Monument Valley game, and aims to capture the journey through a creative 3-D experience. This set includes four minimalist landscape themes that are modular and interactive; featuring rotating walkways, platforms, pillars, staircases, bridges and water wheels; along with three main characters, Ida, Totem and Crow. It is an original Lego design concept with visually attractive elements that are appealing and intriguing to a wide audience.
The project has 1,590 supporters so far (at time of writing) and has some way to go before LEGO will build it and place it in stores. But, of all the mobile gaming tributes, I can hardly think of one more fitting than a build-able interactive Monument Valley set.
The set concept includes The Garden from chapter II, Labyrinth from chapter VI, Water Palace from chapter IV, Halcyon Court from Appendix IV and three characters; Ida, Totem and the Crow. There are also three illusion stickers to add dimension through illusion of shadows, buttons, doorways and windows.
Unlike most crowd-support sites, LEGO Ideas doesn’t ask members for money. Instead, you offer your official support and fill in a very quick poll on how popular you think it would be if it hit store shelves. Once it gains 10,000 supporters, LEGO will review it and might even launch the sets.
Alto’s Adventure coming to Android on Feb. 11 with a free-to-play model
The beautiful and widely praised Alto’s Adventure is coming to the Play Store with a free-to-pay model on February 11th. The game was first released on iOS nearly a year ago and will also be available in the Amazon App Store.
Nintendo: Our second mobile game will feature a ‘very familiar’ character
When Nintendo first announced that it would finally be launching a smartphone game, it’s safe to say, many of us children of the 90’s got a little excited. Sadly, we got excited too soon. Excitement turned to bemusement once the company revealed it would be launching a weird game called Miitomo, which wasn’t exactly a game, but rather a social network.
Following its disappointing Q4 results, Nintendo has confirmed that its second title would include a “very familiar character”, and won’t be another social network attempt. It did, however, stop short of confirming exactly which character we’re going to see.
Play Games announces automatic sign-in, no longer requires a Google+ account
Over the weekend, Google announced changes to Play Games permissions that are mostly meant for developers, but regular users who game on Android will also see a benefit. Players no longer need their Google accounts upgraded to Google+ to use Play Games and can now automatically be signed-in with a standard Google account.
Play an augmented reality game on your Android Wear watch with Tilt
Virtual reality is cool, but augmented reality is more practical in day-to-day usage. Microsoft’s HoloLens and Magic Leap are currently the most well-known examples of AR. There are productivity use cases for it, but there are also many fun gaming applications. One developer made an app that turns an Android Wear watch when viewed through a camera into a game.
There is now a free Space Defender-esque game for Android Wear
In the past, we’ve seen developers get Game Boy Advance games working on Android Wear watches. It’s not entirely practical for a number of reasons, but it’s still kind of fun and cool. There is now a Space Defender-esque game for Wear that was released as an Android Experiments app.
Turn your phone in to a lightsaber with this awesome Google Chrome web-game
As we know, Google has gone all out Star Wars this year; theming Chrome, Gmail, YouTube and other services with the movie’s imagery as well as launching custom Star Wars Cardboard headsets. With the Star Wars showings now kicking off around the globe, Google has saved the best until last. ‘Lightsaber Escape’ is the company’s latest Chrome Experiment, and ties in a number of modern browser-based technologies to make your smartphone and Chrome desktop browser work together.
Simply head on over to g.co/lightsaber and follow the instructions on screen. It’ll ask you to visit a specific web address on your smartphone. Once you’ve done that, the phone and desktop browsers talk to each other, and ask you to hold your phone vertically to calibrate it. Once calibrated, your phone is the handle of the lightsaber, while the ‘blade’ appears on screen and responds to your movements. The aim: Get out of the Star Destroyer and kill lots of Stormtroopers. It’s pretty awesome.
Google’s team developed the game in collaboration with Disney, Lucasfilm and Industrial Light & Magic, and was built using WebGL for high resolution 3D graphics, while using WebRTC and WebSockets for fast, accurate and responsive communication between the mobile and desktop browsers. This is one of just many Star Wars experiences launched by Google. If you have a Cardboard set of any kind, you can also head on over to Google.com/starwars and explore Jakku Spy using your headset.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPd0w3pVQVI]
$100 Google Play gift card for under $80 shipped (20% off)
From 9to5Toys.com:
As expected from its leaked Black Friday ad, Sam’s Club is now offering a $100 Google Play gift card for $79.64 shipped. That’s more than 20% off your next Google Play purchases on games, apps, movies, TV shows and more. While we do see iTunes gift cards go on sale quite often, these Google Play vouchers are much harder to come by. They can be amazing gifts for Android users and anyone who’s locked into Google’s video services.
It ships free and can be redeemed on the web or Android devices. Full details/instructions can be found below. Head over to 9to5Toys for all of the best Black Friday deals the entire weekend-long.
Includes:
One (1) $100 Google Play gift card
To redeem on the web:
- Go to play.google.com/redeem.
- Scratch label off of card & enter code.
- Start shopping – your gift card value will be added to your Google Play balance.
To redeem on an Android phone/tablet:
- Launch the Google Play Store app on your Android phone or tablet.
- Select Redeem.
- Scratch label off of card & enter code.
- Start shopping – your gift card value will be added to your Google Play balance.
Specifications
Terms and Conditions
Use of card subject to additional terms and privacy policy: play.google.com/about/card-terms.html. Valid only for users 13+ years of age and resident of U.S. Redemption requires Google Wallet account and internet access. Limits may apply to redemption and use. No fees or expiration dates applicable to this card. Card may be used for purchases of eligible items on Google Play only. Any refunded amount will be credited back to your Google Play balance for future use under same terms. Card is not redeemable for cash or other cards; not reloadable or refundable; cannot be combined with other non-Google Play balances in your Google Wallet account, resold, exchanged or transferred for value (except as required by law). Once card is purchased, risk of loss and title for card passes to purchaser. Google Payment Corp. and its affiliates disclaim all express or implied warranties as to the Google Play card and Google Play.
Star Wars Battlefront gets its own official Android companion app
Thanks to the impending arrival of Star Wars: Episode VII, one of this year’s most talked-about console games is Battlefront, which is undoubtedly one of the best (if not THE best) Star Wars games of all time. And now, it has its own official mobile companion app on the Google Play Store. The Android app was just released and features a number of mini games that unlock various objects in the full Battlefront console title…
