Showing posts with label ios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ios. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

Diner Dash serves up good eats on iOS for free

Were you sad to see Diner Dash close its doors on Facebook? If you have an Apple mobile device, you can now fill in a bit of the hole left behind with the game's closure, as the original Diner Dash is now absolutely free to download via iTunes. Technically, the free version is only for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but you can download it on your iPad as well (the graphics will be much poorer in that case).

Before this sale, Diner Dash could be purchased for $2.99, which makes this a pretty good deal. Add to this the fact that the game is frequently updated with new content (new themed restaurants and levels, for one) and the deal becomes even better!

Sure, downloading an iPhone game won't bring back the joy of playing as Flo on Facebook, but we certainly won't turn down a free game. The only thing to keep in mind here, folks, is that this free price will only be around for a limited time. How limited? Unfortunately, PlayFirst doesn't say, but that just gives you all the more incentive to download it now, even if you don't plan on playing it until later!

Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Zynga, well, drops Drop7 Free on iOS, ad-free $2.99 version available

Since Zynga acquired NewToy in late 2010, the developer behind Words with Friends, it has been serious about mobile gaming. This is the company's next major release, and its not FrontierVille Mobile--it's Drop7. Both a color and number-matching puzzler, Drop7 lives in a strange world where Tetris and Bejeweled are just best friends. The game features three difficulty levels, public leader boards and automatically saves your state when closed through the Home button. The free version, of course, contains ads, though the company offers an ad-free version for $2.99. Does this mean a future in original, (possibly non-social) mobile games from Zynga? If that depends on this critically-acclaimed title, then yes, most likely.

[Image Credit: iTunes; Zynga]

Have you played Drop7 on your iOS device yet? What do you think about Zynga's mobile efforts thus far?

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Puppy lovers unite as OMGPop pulls in $20k daily from Puppy World

That's a heck of a lot of doggy biscuits... Released in late July, OMGPop's Puppy World on iPhone / iPod Touch has been downloaded over one million times, and currently sits at #54 on the iTunes Top Free Apps chart. While not one of the most social-heavy games on the App Store (although the app claims you can share puppies with your Facebook friends), that doesn't mean it's not a profitable setup. In fact, players are apparently so in love with puppies that they're paying $20,000 per day on the game's virtual goods.

As reported by TechCrunch, OMGPop's CEO Dan Porter has offered some stats about the game's progress so far (unfortunately, there's no infographic to go with them - we love infographics). Of the game's 1 million downloads, a quarter of those have resulted in daily active users returning to the game. What's more, when taking all users into account, each user spends an average of eight cents per day on virtual goods that are available within the Puppy World app (players can purchase premium decorations, or can even buy their way out of quests with premium currency). While it wasn't revealed in exact detail, Puppy World has many players that spend sometimes more than $50 on premium currency packages, with all spending adding up to over $20,000 a day.

To bring in those users, Porter claims that 20 percent of users are downloading the game based on adds they've seen on OMGPop's website and on Facebook app pages, while viral sharing and exposure on the iTunes app charts accounts for a larger portion: 60%. The final 20% is comprised of users that responded to paid advertising. Do the math, and Porter states that "For every user we pay to acquire we are seeing 6 more users for free." That's pretty impressive, all things considered.

Of course, many would argue that in the world of social and mobile games, success is found over the course of a marathon, and not a sprint. Sure, OMGPop may have a hit on their hands now, but how long will it last? Porter admits that the game isn't without flaws, especially when playing on older iPhones. "If we had to do it all over again, we would have only supported iPhone 4," he says. He attributes many of the app's one-star reviews to the app crashing on older phones.

With such simplistic gameplay as waiting for puppies to grow before giving them over to happy children, mixed with some light animal care-taking tasks, could Puppy World even have enough content to sustain a port to Facebook? I know I'd be interested in these adorable puppies making the switch, and with profits like these just on the iPhone, we're excited to learn if that becomes OMGPop's next logical step. We'll make sure to let you know if it is.

Have you tried Puppy World on iPhone? Would you like to see Puppy World make the switch to Facebook, or do you think the gameplay is more suited to a mobile experience / audience? Have you spent any money in free-to-play mobile games?

Monday, September 26, 2011

Diner Dash serves up good eats on iOS for free

Were you sad to see Diner Dash close its doors on Facebook? If you have an Apple mobile device, you can now fill in a bit of the hole left behind with the game's closure, as the original Diner Dash is now absolutely free to download via iTunes. Technically, the free version is only for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but you can download it on your iPad as well (the graphics will be much poorer in that case).

Before this sale, Diner Dash could be purchased for $2.99, which makes this a pretty good deal. Add to this the fact that the game is frequently updated with new content (new themed restaurants and levels, for one) and the deal becomes even better!

Sure, downloading an iPhone game won't bring back the joy of playing as Flo on Facebook, but we certainly won't turn down a free game. The only thing to keep in mind here, folks, is that this free price will only be around for a limited time. How limited? Unfortunately, PlayFirst doesn't say, but that just gives you all the more incentive to download it now, even if you don't plan on playing it until later!

Do you already own Diner Dash on iOS, or will you download it now for the first time since it's free? Does this freebie giveaway help heal the wound of losing Diner Dash on Facebook? Let us know in the comments!