OpenFeint powers Chinese mobile social game network Game Zone

Google and the Chinese government have a ... tenuous relationship. And mobile social gaming, namely Android gaming, has suffered as a result. Amidst frequent shutouts of the official Android Market in China, Chinese game company The9 has announced Game Zone, an OpenFeint-powered mobile social game network and distribution channel.

Through Game Zone, Western mobile social game makers can hit Chinese mobile game audiences across 30 Android app stores other than the Android Market. The service was made possible by deals The9 made with all three major Chinese mobile carriers: China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom. The deals also allow Game Zone to be preinstalled on Lenovo, HTC, and Motorola Android phones.

While The9 will fund smaller American and European Android game creators through the $100 million-strong Fund9, it's the big league creators that might benefit most from this. PopCap recently announced that Plants vs Zombies will shuffle toward Chinese audiences, which is joined by Rovio's Angry Birds. Several Zynga games have launched in China, and perhaps this opportunity will nudge similar moves by the social game giant on Android.

We often talk about how Japan's mobile social game companies are encroaching upon Western audiences. It looks like the inverse is happening in China, where Western mobile and social game makers are looking to tap into their audience. It makes you wonder why Chinese game companies have yet to try the same at such a scale.

Would Western game companies be smart to enter China through products like Game Zone? When, if ever, will Chinese social game companies push as hard into the West as Japanese companies?

GreenSpace on Facebook wants you to make the (distant) future tidy

With the way waste management around the globe is going, the Earth probably won't look so hot in a few decades. Canadian social game maker RocketOwl Inc. asks gamers to fast forward a couple hundred years in its new Facebook game GreenSpace. In that time--assuming we've yet to destroy ourselves--our planet will likely be inhabitable if we maintain this track, and it's up to you to reclaim a previously colonized and, of course, dirtied up planet one piece of litter at a time.

GreenSpace has officially exited its open beta period today, and is now available for all to play hopefully bug-free. The game tasks players with managing a colony as they transform it from a heap of trash into a lush, green mountain valley. While GreenSpace's presentation doesn't seem terribly different from games like CityVille, RocketOwl touts the game's animations, artwork and addictive cleaning actions. Fast-paced mini games are also said to play a role in GreenSpace.
GreenSpace in action
"We've been working with players over the past few months to fine-tune the game,"RocketOwl CEO Graeme Barlow said in a statement. "Now that GreenSpace is coming out of beta, the entire team is really excited to see the public reception of the launch. We could not be happier with the final product and hope that you enjoy playing it as much as we've enjoyed putting it together."

GreenSpace strikes us as quite similar to a recent green-themed Facebook game, Guerillapps's Trash Tycoon. Both games revolve around reclaiming a territory from the clutches of clutter, though the latter is attached to real-life organizations looking to do the same in the world around us. Based on the looks of GreenSpace, RocketOwl seems to be dedicated to at least raising awareness of the same issues, but make that call for yourself.


Click here to play GreenSpace on Facebook Now >

Do you think Facebook games are a good place to raise awareness of issues of waste and other "green" concerns? Do you think GreenSpace could do or does a good job of this?

Game of the Day: Loaded Waterguns

In Loaded Waterguns you'll explore a dusty Wild West town. You'll have to use impeccable aim and shooting skills to blast away at targets. The only difference is in this town, folks don't do battle with bullets, they gun each other down with good ol' water guns.

At the start of the game you'll have a pick of two water guns. The first is the trusty Soak Gattler, which is kind of a revolver-gatling gun mix. The other choice is the slightly more unwieldy super-advanced Hydro Soaker DH-32 gun. After that, pick your settings and get shooting. Remember to only shoot the red targets and to charge up your gun before firing. When you run out of water click the glass to reload!

It's high noon, get out there and draw!

Click here to play Loaded Waterguns!
loaded waterguns game of the day     loaded waterguns game of the day
Pro Tips:

    Only shoot the red targets.
    Charge up your water gun all the way before firing.
    To reload, click the water glass at the bottom right of the screen.


Click here to play Loaded Waterguns!

Where you able to get past the incredibly difficult third level?

Look, Activision, do you want to make Facebook games or not?

Seriously, it's not a hard question. And yet, the omnipotent games publisher continues to flip-flop on the subject of social games. In October, Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty ring a bell?) CEO Bobby Kotick told Los Angeles Magazine that, while the company is at a point where it's ready to invest in Facebook games, it doesn't expect much to come of it. Here's an excerpt from Kotick's conversation:

    As of October Activision chief executive Bobby Kotick still wasn't ready. "If we can't put a creative foot forward, it's not interesting to us," he told me at the company's headquarters, which is tucked in an office complex on Ocean Park Avenue. In assessing Facebook, Kotick says he's been "trying to figure out what we could do that's different from what's being done. So now that they've gotten a large enough audience and we've done enough analysis of the opportunity, we can commit capital." He adds, however, "We don't have huge expectations."

Um, just curious ... what's the point then? Since then, Kotick spoke with Bloomberg, seeming refreshingly bullish on the prospect of Facebook games. Over the summer--before either interview--the Activision chief admitted that the company was into social games. But shortly after, other executives within the company made points to denounce Facebook gaming. What gives?

Here's the thing: If you're not going to go full bore into the social games space, then you're not going to get anywhere. Just look at EA, for instance. It's cost the company upwards of $2 billion in acquisitions to hit second place on the charts with 56.9 million monthly players, and that's not even close to the industry leader Zynga's 218 million. If Activision doesn't have "huge expectations" of its efforts in Facebook games, why even spend the cash? Hell, the publisher's own former game creators may beat it to the punch.

[Via LA Observed]

Is it even worth it for Activision Blizzard to get into Facebook games at this point? If so, what types of games would you like to see from the games publisher?

Facebook Pokémon clone MinoMonsters migrates to iOS for $1

You might remember MinoMonsters, game developer Josh Buckley's take on Pokémon for Facebook. Well, that game was either just a test or a flop for the 17-year-old entrepreneur, as his new studio has re-released the game as an iPhone and iPad app. In this new-and-improved MinoMonsters, players must journey across the Kingdom of Zancardi, capturing and battling creatures called Minos for, well, the sake of battling monsters. Come on, it's not as if Pokémon's plot is rock solid either.

The youngin's new studio is called MinoMonsters Inc., so you can tell the guy's dedicated to the concept, which will cost you $.99 on the App Store. Once purchased, you can start trading blows back and forth in turn-based bouts with opponents' monsters either within the game's story or your friends from anywhere in the world. Just like in Pokémon, players' monsters gain new abilities and will become stronger, which helps players find new monsters and defeat tougher opponents.
MinoMonsters in action
The first thing we noticed with these screens of the game in action are the impressive, seemingly hand-drawn graphics. Seriously, this game looks like an episode of Pokémon--look, the comparisons are inevitable at this point--at least when still. MinoMonsters (the company) promises that you can find players to do battle with in under 30 seconds. The game's primary competition on iOS, Monster Galaxy, doesn't seem to have multiplayer just yet. So, now MinoMonsters is the closest you're going to get a Pokémon game on your iPhone.

Click here to download MinoMonsters for $.99 on the App Store Now >

Are you craving that Pokémon experience on your iPhone? Do you think a game like MinoMonsters can feed the need?

FarmVille Pic of the Day: Ditch e-cards for Faustino's farm-sized, cards display

Normally, people treat their Christmas cards as mantelpieces, but FarmVille player Faustino has traded the fireplace for the farm with his Christmas card farm display. Three wintery, holiday tableaux in the form of giant greeting cards sit around an equally gigantic holiday tree that Faustino designed himself.

Bright red hay bales frame each 'card' to make them look like they're standing upright. As for the the tree, it's obviously made of bunches of other trees put together. Even the ornaments are trees, or more specifically, Stouffer's Mac & Cheese Trees, while sprinkled on the ground are many White and Pink Star Hay Bales. Regular hay bales were used to spell "HOLIDAY" beneath the tree, as well as forming the icy-looking snowflakes in the background.

In certain ways, Faustino's holiday farm combines ideas and techniques from Brayzdin's fantastical Christmas wonderland and Hieloiceberg's greeting card holographic projection farm to create something equally original.

Check out the rest of our Holiday 2011 coverage right here.

Instead of snail mailing greeting cards, what do you think of emailing pictures of a FarmVille Christmas farm you've made to people? Sound off in the comments. 1 Comment

If you have an AWESOME FarmVille farm that you want to see featured on Games.com, please email a picture to editors@games.com, Include a few words about the inspiration for your design and maybe a few tips for people who need an assist!

Assassin’s Creed Line Dancing At New York’s Comic-Con

New York Comic-Con’s Just Dance 3 stage was always filled with an interesting mix of cosplayers, but these are my favorite: A dozen assassins from Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed line dancing to Sugarhill Gang’s Jump On It with the help of Ubisoft’s other major hit… Just Dance.
It’s a tad long, but you should probably skip over to three minutes in to see the special guest appearance.