Video Games Blog

1. By genre, strategy games led the way in the US in 2011, making up 27.6% of all videogames sold that year. Role-playing had second place according to a survey by the NPD group.

2. VGChartz published figures last year on the most popular PC games sold worldwide a year ago. The Sims were ahead of the pack with over 16 million units sold; World of Warcraft followed with almost 12 million; StarCraft joined the top 3 with a little over 11 million. Theme Hospital, meanwhile, had to make do with a meagre 3.99 million – which still leaves it among those games classified as a huge commercial success.

3. By the end of last year, there were some exciting developments on the game console market as well. Wii Sports was the winner, with a staggering 79.65 million units sold. In general Nintendo dominated the ranking, as all of the best-selling videogames in the top 10 were released by the Japanese company.

4. Last year US gamers spent $5 billion on gaming hardware and $2 billion on accessories, according to the NPD group. 

5. Among children 0 to 8 years of age in the US, 13% play videogames once a day, 20% less often than once a week and 48% have never played a game at all. The survey was conducted by Common Sense Media – looks like most parents are still monitoring young children’s videogame activity pretty closely.

6. Interesting. The majority of videogame users in the US are 18-49 years old – 53%. 29% are 50 and older, while 18% are under 18, according to information from Ipsos.

7. Last year 42% of videogamers were female, while 58% were male (Ipson MediaCT). The number of females playing has been increasing since 2006 – looks like we gals are catching up.

8. Social gaming is also gaining in popularity. Last year 33% of hardcore social gamers were under the age of 30, followed by 26% being over 50.

9. On average in 2011 an American spent 131 hours playing videogames.

10. Based on recent figures from Newzoo, the US had 145 million active gamers. Second place is held by Russia with 38 million videogame fans, but Germany is breathing down its neck with 36 million. Will one of the two be able to overtake the US someday? That remains to be seen.

While it may take time for the trend to develop fully, an increasing number of people prefer to play videogames online or on mobile phones, if various internet statistics are to be believed. While traditional videogames are still the main money generator in the business, a quiet, but steady rise has been detected in online or mobile gaming popularity, as this terrific infographic by Statista demonstrates.

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

Almost all major video games that you can see in a real casino can also be found at online casinos. A casino is a gambling facility which is commonly found near hotels, restaurants, shopping malls, cruise ships, and famous attractions. You can play all your favorite online gambling games for fun, while practicing and improving your gaming skills.

The emergence of the casual video game has made video games much more accessible to a wide range of people. This new generation of games ties in naturally with entertainment for company parties. The number of people playing new slot games all over the world has increased dramatically.

Today, poker video games enjoy a significant place on the gaming floors of many casinos. The video game addicts come in all shape and sizes, yet all display the same addictive personalities. And you probably enjoy playing lots of different games, especially mobile game. Mobile gaming platform is very important part of the mobile game development life cycle.

A look at how you can benefit more in skill based competitions like video game tournaments by playing for cash compared to chance based casino games. You will see that gambling is really a part of human culture

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon

Maybe you are not aware yet, but it’s time to meet Squaretron - a fast-paced and addictive arcade game by Avantmotion, developed for Facebook. 

The goal of Squaretron is to maneuver the hero square and catch as many ally squares as possible while avoiding enemy squares at any cost. The whole game is about fast moving squares, attacking from every direction. The white rotating square is the hero of the game, in other words you, the player. The white square moves with your mouse. Ally squares are cyan and enemy squares are fuchsia. A collision with an ally square gives you points, while a contact with the enemy square takes your life. You start the game with three lives but you can get more as you progress with the game. That’s all it – at the very first glance simple, yet extremely challenging!

Similarly to the game rules, Squaretron graphics are very modest and plain as well, yet appealing to even most refined taste players. 

To make the simple gameplay more engaging and strained, Squaretron features exciting Power-ups helping you to increase your score, while hazardous power-downs are present too, aiming to reduce your score. Let’s discuss them separately:

There are number of exciting Power-ups featured in Squaretron. Some of them are more useful than others, but it’s not always rational to chase after them. It’s up to you to decide which power-ups you catch and which you just let go. Below you’ll find the list of Power-ups, helping you to increase your score:

• +1000 – simply gives you an extra thousand points;

• Slow Down – decreases the speed of the game. This power-up is especially useful at higher levels when the speed of the game is really high;

• Mini Square – decreases the size of your square. A smaller square helps you avoid enemy squares. The downside is that catching ally squares becomes difficult too. This power-up is useful when there more enemy squares on the screen;

• Floor – is an extremely useful power-up. When you get this power-up, a floor appears. Enemy squares pass through the floor while ally squares don’t. This means that all ally squares falling from top are conveniently collected on the floor and you can catch ‘em all easily;

• Freeze – stops all movement for three seconds. Nice power-up but be careful. Even though the squares are stopped, a contact with an enemy square will still take your life;

• Shield – this power-up makes your square invincible. While you have the shield, you can touch enemy squares;

• Extra Life – this power-up gives you an extra life.

As for Power-downs, they do make Squaretron difficult to play. You should try to avoid them as much as you can, but fortunately, Power-ups surpass Power-downs in Squaretron. Just in case you catch one of Power-downs accidentally, below you’ll find out what harm each causes you.

• -1000 – an opposite of +1000, deducting 1000 points from your score.

• Speed Up – increases game speed.

• Mega Square – increase your square size. This power-down makes your square larger and thus more vulnerable. On the good side, larger square helps you catch ally squares easily. So, this power-down is not that bad.

• All Enemy Squares – this power-down makes all squares enemy. In other words, any contact with any square takes your life. Luckily, this lasts only 6 seconds or so.

Shortly after going live, Squaretron has just been updated to version 0.9.2 Beta. The new version fixes the replay problem and improves gameplay performance. Only in case you improve your own high score, Facebook asks you to posts your progress story on your wall. Additionally, the Leaderboard Tab is also featured, allowing you to see player standings updated in real-time.  Squaretron lets you challenge your friends, colleagues or just compete with others, beat the top scores and see yourself ranking first in the list! 

• Delicious
• Digg
• StumbleUpon