CrowdStar's entire catalog set to hit Japan

Remember when almost every video game sold in the United States was an import from some Japanese company? These days, games played in Japan are just as likely to be imports from some of the big-name American developers. This trend looks set to extend into social games, as San Francisco's Crowdstar has announced its entire gaming catalog will soon be available on Japanese social networks.

The move is an expansion of an existing partnership with Japan's Drecom that has already brought two popular Crowdstar titles -- Happy Aquarium and Happy Island -- to three of Japan's biggest mobile social networks. With the expansion, Crowdstar is showing it's eager to grab even more of a Japanese social gaming market estimated to be worth $2 billion.

They're not the only ones, of course. Social gaming powerhouse Zynga recently announced they'd be forming Zynga Japan through a partnership with the country's Softbank. They'll both have to fight with Japanese companies like Square Enix, which have shown a similar eagerness to grab a piece of the social gaming pie.

Will these American exports be able to make a crack in the historically insular Japanese market? If the recent shape of the traditional gaming market is any indication, we're gonna bet that they will.

Happy Pets Marvelous Superhero Critters are back in business

It's been nearly four months since these Happy Pets last saw action, but now they're back and at a discount! The original Iron Cat team consisted of four critters -- Nick Furry, Iron Cat, Machine Cat, and Widow Parrot -- going for 88 Facebook Credits (or $8.80 USD) each, but this time, the price has dropped to 60 FB Credits ($6.00 USD). Don't believe me? Check out the not-so hush-hush report of their debut, plus a Iron Man 2 cast matching list.

The only sad thing is that Widow Parrot seems to be out of commission. Other than that, everything's the same.

Minus the Marvel films to help with the hype, it's hard to tell how quickly they'll get snatched up. Right now, there's roughly 600 of each pet left in the store, while the original release let loose over 20,000 pets into the homes of players. All I can say is, if you've ever wanted one, don't wait.

Happy Island Wizard Week: Collect four LE items to unleash the Dragon

Unleash the Dragon
The wizard fever has struck Happy Island in excitement for the seventh (but not final) Harry Potter movie to release next week, but CrowdStar decided to tone down the direct references and--gasp--be original. There are five attractions in all that will be available all week until the movie launches, so you have some time to collect them all. And trust us, you might want to.

    Wizard's Bank ($9.90): Collects all Moneybags with one click, 2,250 coins
    Wizard's Pranks ($4): Collects 2,250 coins
    Wizard's Order ($4): Collects 2,250 coins
    Wizard's Wands ($4): Collects 3,650 coins
    Wizard's Burrow ($4): Collects 2250 coins


Purchasing the last four items in that list will reward players with the Red Dragon decoration, which will flutter adorably around your island and breathe fire--cute fire, that is. Players can also buy Demented Diamond gems for $1 a piece that will add demented* ghosts to their items, which should ring a bell for just about any Harry Potter fan. And we were so close to complete originality. Oh well, at least it has dragons.

CrowdStar, others dock in Sibblingz Spaceport for mobile social games

If we haven't driven home yet that mobile will be massive in the future of social games, we clearly haven't done our job. Luckily, news like the fact that Sibblingz has signed on It Girl creator CrowdStar and a number of other developers to use its Spaceport service helps us make good on that.

TechCrunch reports that--in addition to CrowdStar--BitRhymes, IKIGames, LuckyLabs, Fortune Planet and DeezGames have signed on to use Spaceport to create mobile versions of their Facebook games. Spaceport is Sibblingz's cloud-based game development platform that allows developers like CrowdStar to create mobile games that work on both iOS and Android devices.

Essentially, it allows developers to create a mobile game once and have it run on multiple mobile devices. The platform makes use of coding languages like Javascript and HTML5, but neither of which are known for making robust or fully-featured games on iPhones or Android phones. However, Sibblingz claims that games built on Spaceport feature an app-like experience.

What Sibblingz means is that, while these games are built using simpler code languages, they will perform like, say CityVille Hometown by Zynga. That game was built using tools specifically for iOS devices and is thus more visually impressive and feature-rich than mobile browser games. However, according to TechCrunch, developers can even create games specifically for iPhones and iPads through Spaceport.

Sibblingz also says that developers can make games for Facebook's worst-kept secret, Project Spartan--an initiative to bring Facebook to mobile devices through browsers using HTML5 complete with full-featured apps and games--through Spaceport. Jeez, on paper it sounds like Spaceport can do anything but make the cash flow.

Regardless, what's important to take away here is that social game developers realize that mobile is where it's at. Frankly, it's one area where clear winners have yet to be defined, much unlike Facebook (ahem, Zynga and EA). At this point, anyone could come out a winner on mobile, and perhaps the companies that embrace cross-platform game creation like CrowdStar will have the upper hand.

Do you think these developers have a chance at winning the mobile race these social game creators are running with Spaceport? Who do you think will ultimately win the mobile social gaming war? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.