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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; }

You may be familiar with Legos in block-form, but the popular line of construction toys is entering new territory: motion pictures. Billed as the "first-ever, full-length theatrical Lego adventure," The Lego Movie follows the story of an ordinary Lego figurine named Emmet (voiced by Chris Pratt) who — in a case of mistaken identity — is enlisted to help save the world alongside superheroes The film features the voices of Will Ferrell (who plays villain President Business), Morgan Freeman (as Vitruvius) and Liam Neeson (as Bad Cop). Elizabeth Banks, Nick Offerman and Alison Brie also lend their vocal talents Read more...More about Entertainment and Film

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

Physically going out to the ol' ballgame has always been an unmatched sporting experience. More recently, however, fans have flocked to online social platforms to talk trash, post thoughts and generally partake in the fun of spectator sports Well, fandom's offline and online realms just got married at AT&T Park, home of MLB's San Francisco Giants SEE ALSO: How the World Series Was Won on Twitter The team unveiled its new "@Cafe" this week, distilling the team's online buzz in one physical location for supporters to visit just beyond the ballpark's centerfield wall The Giants are billing the location as a sports marketing first. It's appropriate the step comes from one of the most digitally creative teams in the world. The team's innovative promotions and social-savvy audience have long led all the major leagues, culminating in the team besting a mid-campaign Barack Obama in Klout cred during its World Series run last fall. Read more...More about Mlb, Entertainment, and Sports

Think back to last Thanksgiving. Your meal probably started out normally enough — a few slices of turkey here, a few dozen spoonfuls of mashed potatoes there — and ended with you clutching your food baby while passed out on the couch at 6 p.m. in front of the football game We don't blame youFood is delicious. Food comas, however, are not. Just like a bad break-up, they leave you bloated, sluggish and miserable. That is, until you bounce back and are ready to dive into your next meal. SEE ALSO: How Photographing Your Food Can Help Fight World Hunger [MEOW] While you wait for your stomach to return to its previous dimensions, chew on the 17 stages of a food coma Read more...More about Humor, Watercooler, Pics, Food, and Lists

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

Since banning Viber, Saudi Arabia appears to have its set its sights on another popular Internet messenger smartphone application. This time it's WhatsApp, which could be blocked in just a few weeks unless it complies with local regulations The country's Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) is considering banning WhatsApp in the coming weeks, probably before Ramadan, which starts on July 9 SEE ALSO: In Turkey, a New Form of Protest: Standing Silently for Hours The ban is being considered both because WhatsApp communications are allegedly harder to monitor, and because the service cuts into local telecom companies' revenue, since it allows users to send messages over the Internet instead of the telephone networks Read more...More about Saudi Arabia, Whatsapp, Apps Software, Us World, and World

If you watched Superman's life unfold on a white board yesterday, you're aware of his wide range of superhuman abilities. One swipe of his right fist is enough to send you into another dimension. But imagine if you were on the other end of that punch. SEE ALSO: The 10 Most Viral YouTube Videos of 2012 YouTube sensation Vsauce3 gives a scientific breakdown of how much damage Superman could incur on an average human. The video, which has already accrued more than 1.4 million views, uses physics to prove its findings. He even references Big Mac calories for good measure Image courtesy of YouTube, Vsauce3 Read more...More about Viral Videos, Science, Physics, Watercooler, and Videos