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HAPPY BIRTHDAY, FARMVILLE! It’s that time of year again- FarmVille’s birthday! This year, FarmVille is celebrating it’s fourth birthday with a special 30 Days of prizes which will reward players with a free prize every day.  The 30 Days of prizes will begin on May 20th, 2013 and will run until June 19th, 2013. Today is officially day 3o of the 30 days of prizes. Simply login to your FarmVille farm and click on the birthday icon (right side, see below) to claim your free prize. The FarmVille Birthday 30 Days of Prizes, has its own quick button with a “4″ birthday candle icon that can be found on the right side of your in-game play area. FarmVille Birthday Day 25: 4th Birthday Pegacorn FarmVille 30 Days of Prizes Day 30 Daily Prize: FarmVille 4th Birthday Pegacorn FarmVille Daily Fun Fact: During the month of March 2013, over 250 million people played a Zynga game! We appreciate the support! Sneak Peek of all the Birthday Prizes after the jump! FarmVille 4th Birthday Prizes: FarmVille Birthday Day 1: 4th Birthday Cupcake Cow FarmVille Birthday Day 2: 4th Birthday Candle Tree FarmVille Birthday Day 3: 10 Fuel Refills FarmVille Birthday Day 4: Atlantis Buildable Part Package FarmVille Birthday Day 5: Fertilize All Package FarmVille Birthday Day 6: 4th Birthday Bush FarmVille Birthday Day 7: 2 Mystery Game Darts FarmVille Birthday Day 8: 4th Birthday Party Tree FarmVille Birthday Day 9: 20 Watering Cans FarmVille Birthday Day 10: 3 Unwithers FarmVille Birthday Day 11: 4th Birthday Chicken FarmVille Birthday Day 12: 3 Pack of Turbo Chargers FarmVille Birthday Day 13: Sunlight & Mushroom Package FarmVille Birthday Day 14: 10 Farmhands FarmVille Birthday Day 15: 4th Birthday Mare FarmVille Birthday Day 16: 4th Birthday Sheep FarmVille Birthday Day 17: 4th Birthday Bouncy House FarmVille Birthday Day 18: 3-Pack of Instagrows FarmVille Birthday Day 19: 4th Birthday Bedazzled Horse FarmVille Birthday Day 20: 10 Arborists FarmVille Birthday Day 21: Atlantis Treasure Parts Package FarmVille Birthday Day 22: Book of XP FarmVille Birthday Day 23: 4th Birthday Cake Pop Tree FarmVille Birthday Day 24: 20 Fuel Refills FarmVille Birthday Day 25: 4th Birthday Gnome FarmVille Birthday Day 26: 4th Birthday Party Horse FarmVille Birthday Day 27: Australian Vineyard Package FarmVille Birthday Day 28: 4th Birthday Cotton Candy Tree FarmVille Birthday Day 29: 4th Birthday Unicorn FarmVille Birthday Day 25: 4th Birthday Pegacorn

Details are still minimal right now, but it seems that the 4.45 update for PS3 is locking up systems. According to reports, owners can no longer boot their systems after the update after the update, which Sony released today. The update is supposed to let gamers choose whether they want in-game notifications when they earn trophies. According to website Engadget, the issue only seems to affect PlayStation 3 owners with 500GB or larger hard drives, but that’s difficult to confirm right now. We contacted Sony representative, who say they’re looking into the issue. GamesBeat will update when we hear more. For now, it’s probably best to play it safe avoid the system update. Filed under: Games GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here! .boilerplate-after hr { margin: 10px 0 10px 0; }

July 9-10, 2013 San Francisco, CA Tickets On Sale Now Seemingly out of nowhere tonight, graphics chip maker Nvidia has announced one of the biggest changes to its business in some time: It will begin licensing its new Kepler GPU core, as well as future designs, to third-party companies. The move will give Nvidia a completely new source of revenue, but more importantly it will help bring its technology to even more mobile devices. The company has been struggling to get into the mobile market with its Tegra processors, but so far we’ve yet to see a killer Tegra device hit the market. By licensing its technology, Nvidia won’t have to rely solely on Tegra as its mobile workhorse, and it also opens the door for some interesting new spins on its technology from third-parties. Additionally, Nvidia also announced that it will be licensing out its visual computing portfolio, which includes more than 5,500 patents and its CUDA parallel computing platform. “Not so long ago, we only made and sold GPU chips, albeit the world’s fastest ones,” wrote David Shannon, executive vice president and general counsel at Nvidia, in a blog post tonight. “Five years ago, we introduced Tegra, a system on a chip… But it’s not practical to build silicon or systems to address every part of the expanding market. Adopting a new business approach will allow us to address the universe of devices.” Nvidia is best known for its powerful graphics cards, which have been accelerating 3D performance for PC gamers (and emptying their wallets) since the mid-90s. But with Tegra, and more recent announcements like its GRID game streaming system and the Shield Android console, Nvidia has desperately been trying to make itself relevant in an entirely new wave of computing devices. While the licensing announcement was surprising, it makes a lot of sense for Nvidia. Its new Kepler GPU technology can scale from smartphones all the way to powerful supercomputers, making it perfectly suited for other companies to manipulate for their own uses. Licensing also makes Nvidia’s technology viable for companies that would never adopt its Tegra chips, hardware guru Anand Lal Shimp points out. Now Nvidia will be able to push its technology for future chips from Apple and Samsung, both of which would likely leap at the chance to outdo the other in graphics performance. Filed under: Business, Gadgets, Games, Mobile .boilerplate-before .event-boilerplate-mobilebeat { width:278px; margin:0px 0px 10px 20px; padding:10px; float:right; border:1px solid #e4e4e4; font-family: 'Open Sans', sans-serif; color:#000; } .boilerplate-before .event-boilerplate-mobilebeat .logo-date-wrap { width:100%; display:block; float:left; margin-bottom:8px; } .boilerplate-before .event-boilerplate-mobilebeat img { float:left; } .boilerplate-before .event-boilerplate-mobilebeat .date-location { float:right; font-size:12px; line-height:14px; text-align:center; padding-left:7px; padding-top:5px; padding-bottom:3px; border-left:1px solid #e6e6e6; color:#585a5b; } .boilerplate-before .event-boilerplate-mobilebeat .cta { display:block; clear:both; width:100%; border-radius:5px; border:1px solid #1864b1; color:#fff; text-shadow: 0px -1px 0px rgba(0,0,0,0.3); text-align:center; text-decoration:none; font-weight:600; font-size:18px; line-height:17px; padding:4px 0px 6px 0px; background: #1f80e4; background: -moz-linear-gradient(top,  #1f80e4 0%, #1862ae 100%); background: -webkit-gradient(linear, left top, left bottom, color-stop(0%,#1f80e4), color-stop(100%,#1862ae)); background: -webkit-linear-gradient(top,  #1f80e4 0%,#1862ae 100%); background: -o-linear-gradient(top,  #1f80e4 0%,#1862ae 100%); background: -ms-linear-gradient(top,  #1f80e4 0%,#1862ae 100%); background: linear-gradient(to bottom,  #1f80e4 0%,#1862ae 100%); filter: progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.gradient( startColorstr='#1f80e4', endColorstr='#1862ae',GradientType=0 ); }

I opened my eyes slowly. I found myself floating in an expanse of water. There was an island in the hazy distance, and I began to move toward it. I reached the edge of the sea and climbed ashore. There was a calming sound surrounding me, like music, but it seemed more alive. As I moved through the island, it moved with me. Was this a dream? Everything looked like a dream. It felt real, but in retrospect, it wasn’t quite right. I walked among the cherry trees, and as I climbed, the music swelled, lifting my spirits. Surprisingly, I wasn’t alone. There was a small flock of chickens clucking away musically — the pleasing sound of mallets masking what should have been a more irksome clutter. I tried to get close, but they ran away frantically — the mallets falling on bars faster and faster like an intensifying rain. Leaving the birds in peace, I traveled a bit farther, noticing a change in the sky. It was darkening, and the music was becoming subdued, tranquil, and almost sorrowful. I was near another shore, and something about the sea was calling to me. It seemed like the place where I began was the place to be as the world was calming. I swam out into nowhere and turned back to look at the island I had left. The music was still. The night was stiller. I closed my eyes. Game developers and their patrons are obsessed with value. With a stock price of $60 per game, it’s understandable — players want their money’s worth, and the creators know how to deliver. So much content is being crammed into games that they are ripping at the seams — bloated from dozens of hours of sidequests, achievements, and collectables. Beat the game on Normal. Beat the game on Hard. Beat the game on You’re Mentally Insane To Try This, You Idiot. Each of these warrants an achievement, and of course you can’t really feel fulfilled unless you get them all. There’s an emptiness inside you, and a small voice that says that you haven’t really beaten the game. Then there are games with infinite possibilities like Skyrim, where you can easily log 100 or 200 hours with just one character. That’s not even experiencing a fraction of the game, with a number of classes to choose from at the outset and a daunting number of possibilities when leveling up the character. For a long time, I was just as obsessed as the Every Gamer with the amount of content crammed in a game. My excitement couldn’t be contained when I learned that Action Role-playing Game 3 or Adventure 7 was going to be the biggest game yet in the series, with a map so large that it would take an hour just to reach the edge. That’s not to say that I still don’t love huge games that are packed with extra missions or unnecessary, time-sucking achievements, but recently, something else has stolen my heart: short games. With the growth of digital publishing on platforms such as the App Store, Steam, or the PlayStation 3, there has been a surge of indie studios, many of which consist only of one or two people. The ability for short-staffed developers to self publish digitally has allowed for more accessible, smaller scale games, and despite their scope, they carry the same weight and validity as triple-A titles. It has been proven by releases like Journey that satisfying, artful experiences can be packed into smaller games, but some developers have taken the minimal approach to gaming even further. My time with Ed Key and David Kanaga’s Proteus confirmed that the value and length of a game are not proportionate. Proteus consists of the most bare-bones video-game concept I can recall. You would be forgiven for wondering whether this is actually a “game” or just an “interactive audio-visual experience.” But perhaps not by the developer, who describes it as both — you can read Key’s defense of Proteus as a game here. Upon starting the game, you’re presented with a colorful

You’d be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn’t know who Mario is. Due to his iconic red hat, blue overalls, and a fluffy mustache, Nintendo’s mascot is instantly recognizable. But after appearing in many new games, sequels, and remakes over the past 30 years, I’m beginning to grow weary of the Italian plumber. Last week, the GamesBeat staff shared their thoughts on the state of the Wii U, and the consensus wasn’t very positive. At this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles, Nintendo proved once again that it’s relying on heavy hitters like Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. to keep 3DS and Wii U players happy. And not surprisingly, Mario plays a prominent part in many of those games. I kept this fatigue in mind when I spoke with Koichi Hayashida and Yoshiaki Koizumi at E3. Hayashida is the director of the upcoming co-op platformer Super Mario 3D World, and Koizumi is a producer in Nintendo’s Entertainment Analysis and Development (EAD) division in Tokyo. Both men have worked at Nintendo since the ’90s, with résumés filed with games like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy (as well as its sequel). They work closely with Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto, making them the ideal candidates to talk about Mario’s role in video games today. A hardware-driven philosophy As a hobby, Hayashida keeps a book full of quotes from Miyamoto, where he writes down interesting things that the legendary designer says about game development. One of those quotes explains the central philosophy behind each new Mario game. “There is one thing from my quote book that Miyamoto is fond of saying: Mario games are easy to make in the sense that they’re always based on the way that hardware has evolved,” said Hayashida. “So you have to look at what the new capability of hardware is. You think about a specific, fun, new experience based on the capabilities of that hardware. That’s really what influences the outcome of the software. And so, we see Mario games changing all the time. And it’s very much based on what each new iteration of hardware can do.” Though Nintendo finds a way to reinvent Mario with each new console it makes, the changes are never too dramatic — arguably, the last big leap was the advent of the 3D platformer in Super Mario 64. But since then, the changes usually come in the form of new worlds to explore, new powers to wield, or the addition of cooperative multiplayer. And with similarly sounding titles like New Super Mario Bros., Super Paper Mario, Mario and Luigi, and Super Mario 3D Land, it’s hard to keep track of them all. Source: Giancarlo Valdes/GamesBeatYoshiaki Koizumi (left) and Koichi Hayashida. With enough Mario games out in the wild to last a lifetime, I asked Hayashida and Koizumi if Nintendo is ever afraid that gamers will eventually lose interest in its chubby hero. As expected, I didn’t get a direct yes or no on the matter, but Hayashida did bring up some insight to how the company views Mario: He’s a status symbol for “quality.” “I guess I should really turn that idea around,” said Hayashida. “Rather than getting worried about people getting tired of Mario, I like to think of Mario as being a reliable character, in the sense that people can be relieved knowing that they’re buying a game that represents a really high level of quality and a certain amount of [thought] that goes into the design. “And certainly, that’s the case with Super Mario 3D World. We are presenting a lot of interesting new elements that really change the gameplay experience. Certainly the Mario character is familiar to everyone, but the cat suit is entirely new. And the ability to have multiplayer in a 3D Mario game for the first time I think feels very fresh and different. So it’s the same Mario character of course, but with each new hardware iteration — as I’ve said — we

Now that everyone’s home and feeling has returned to their feet — just as the con flu starts kicking in — we’ve had a chance to assess the real takeaways from 2013′s Electronic Entertainment Expo. That’s right — I mean the loot. Most companies hand out a little something to people who go behind closed doors. Shirts, bags, funny wigs … it gets a little strange out on the show floor sometimes. We can’t claim that we saw and grabbed everything we could, here’s what found its way into our hearts. And our luggage. Launch the gallery below for swag! Filed under: Games GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here! .boilerplate-after hr { margin: 10px 0 10px 0; }

Real-money-betting company Skillz raised $4 million in its latest round of funding. Skillz provides mobile gamers a platform to put real money on the outcome of competitive games. It is currently operating in more than a dozen Android games where players can compete in tournaments for the chance to take home a real-money prize. This is similar to recent efforts from some companies to get into real-money casino games, but Skillz operates solely in skill-based titles. Real-money tournaments for games of skill are legal in most U.S. states. “You can play for either virtual currency or for cash if you’re in a legal state,” Skillz chief executive Andrew Paradise told GamesBeat in April. “Or if you’re in a state like Montana, you can play only for virtual currency.” Many mobile and social developers use the free-to-play business model that generates revenue on the back-end through advertising and in-game publishing. A real-money wagering platform like Skillz can offer a new revenue stream while simultaneously exciting gamers that want to add a bit of risk to their gaming experience. Casino games that use virtual currency saturate the social-gaming market. It’s likely that Zynga and other publishers will quickly flip a switch to make those games work with actual cash when the time comes. Skillz is attempting to build up a rapport with gamers using skill-based games so that it too can expand to include casino-like titles. “While companies like Zynga are experimenting with games of chance and how to enable them, gamers are already engaging with Skillz right now,” said Paradise. “We have a survey that shows 41 percent of consumers want to play in real-money competitions in their favorite iPhone or Android games. It’s a staggering number. If everyone already has a balance established with a known company, like Skillz, when games of chance enter the U.S., it creates an interesting dynamic for us to capture some of that.” We’ve reached out to Skillz to ask how it plans to invest this influx of cash. Paradise co-founded San Francisco-based Skillz in 2012 along with Casey Chafkin. Skillz was previously known as Lookout Gaming. Under that name it raised $1.3 million in a seed-funding round. Skillz’ investors include Atlas Venture, Nextview Ventures, and former IGN chief executive Mark Jung. Filed under: Deals, Games GamesBeat 2013 is our fifth annual conference on disruption in the video game market. You'll get 360-degree perspectives from top gaming executives, developers, and analysts on what’s to come in the industry. Our theme this year is “The Battle Royal.” Check out full event details here, and grab your early-bird tickets here! .boilerplate-after hr { margin: 10px 0 10px 0; }

Love video games, but hate spending money? Maybe this will lighten the load a bit - in conjunction with our partners at StackSocial, we're giving Gamezebo's readers a chance to win a $1000 Steam credit!To enter, go to this page and follow the two simple steps presented there. For additional chances to win, be sure to pick up the Name Your Own Price: Race Against Time Bundle for three bonus entries into the raffle. Best of luck!

It seems like everywhere I turn these days, there's another new 8-bit adventure that's set on bringing me back to the days of playing The Legend of Zelda in my parent's basement as a kid. But there's a very good reason for this steady influx of new-age retro-inspired adventures: it's because they were all just so seriously awesome, and Elliot Quest looks to be just as awesome as the rest.In the game, players must assume the role of a hero named Elliot (based on the developer's small son), as he explores the vast Urule Island, and searches for treasure in his quest to defeat the four Element Guardians and acquire their powers. Elliot Quest draws most of its inspiration from the 2D sidescrolling action of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, although the game world itself is described as much more of an open world experience, akin to classic titles as Super Metroid and Castlevania. The game is also set to feature some epic boss fights as well, like a giant pink blob in a golden king's crown who seems overly intent on squishing you into a pixelated pancake.Even though the game sports a more retro feel that harkens back to the golden days of the NES, that's certainly not to say that Elliot Quest doesn't have its fair share of depth to keep modern gamers more than satisfied with the adventure. In addition to a deep leveling system, Elliot will also be met with a karma system, which ultimately affects what kind of ending the player will receive upon completing the game. And this is without even mentioning the helpful mini-map of Urule Island on display, and the many hidden paths and Easter eggs to uncover on your way to that coveted 100%.While the game is only looking to raise $6,000 in funding on its Indiegogo campaign in order to meet its release on Windows, Mac, and Linux platforms, a stretch goal of $11,000 will see a release of the game on the new Android-based home console Ouya, while a $14,000 stretch goal will help improve the overall quality of the sound effects, music, and graphics that make it into the final game. And of course, if you're willing to help out, there are a lot of fun rewards that will make your contributions worthwhile: including a pixelated statue of you that's placed in a special room somewhere in the game as a hidden Easter egg, if you're willing to donate $150.Development began on Elliot Quest in January of 2013, and the game is currently 40% complete with no definite release date in sight. But if you're more in line with the "try it before you buy it crowd," then you can even play a demo version of the game's beta build right over here on the Elliot Quest official website. And if you really like what you see, you can also vote for the game on its Steam Greenlight page.Indiegogo Picks is a series on Gamezebo that profiles Indiegogo projects in the world of video games. We're doing this in the hopes of calling attention to interesting projects in need of funding, so please, if a game looks like something you'd want to play, don't hesitate to lend it your support!

Disney Interactive have announced their newest mobile game - Where's My Mickey? Building on the foundations of Where's My Water? (200 million installs and counting), the new Mickey-based game will use the same style of physics-puzzler gameplay, based around the classic characters we know and love; Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Minnie, Daisy, Goofy and more. It will be available for iOS, Android and Windows Mobile very soon. Where's My Mickey? will launch with over a hundred levels available. Three episodes will ship with the game, which two more available for purchase. Each episode will be themed around a story of Mickey or his friends in their attempts to get water. In Life Gives You Lemons, Mickey runs a lemonade stand. Shenanigans ensue, as they always do with Mickey, leading you to chase the water across 20 levels per episode. Others available at launch are called Fanning The Flames and Growing Pains. Another one called Ship Wrecked can be bought as DLC at launch, along with a Goofy-themed episode called Van Goofy. The team are working on future downloads as well - during a tour of the studio we saw concept art for The Menace of Venice starring Mickey and Minnie, and A Glass Half Empty, in which Mickey battles a goat in a desert. Disney have developed the puzzles beyond the original Where's My Water? There are now clouds to carry water, wind to blow them across the sky and plants to... plant. You'll be using wind to move the water where you want it and raining down on "fizz" to increase the volume available to Mickey and friends. There's a gameplay video and studio tour coming to our YouTube channel soon. Where's My Mickey? is out now on iOS, Android and Windows Mobile. Read more about Where's My Mickey? at The Average Gamer > Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments