VentureBeat |
- Weebly’s website builder adds group editing
- 3 enterprise activities that should stay out of the Cloud
- Ninja Joe is kicking butt in Chile
- Amazon teams up with Overdrive for Kindle library lending
- Hi5 becomes a top ten online game site
- Broadcastr brings location-based storytelling to Android
- Do you need a mentor – or a teacher?
- Rivet Games raises second round for web, social and mobile games (exclusive)
- LOLapps launches its Ravenstone Mine expansion for Facebook game
- Argentina’s MetroGames targets hardcore gamers on Facebook
- Smartphone “spam blocker” Mr. Number hits 2 millionth user and debuts new apps
- Samsung on Apple’s patent suit: lies damn lies
- Deals & More: Decide lands $6M for electronics shopping service
- World Golf Tour expands strategically with TruGolf partnership
- Sony’s new version of PlayStation Home virtual world goes live Wednesday
| Weebly’s website builder adds group editing Posted: 20 Apr 2011 09:02 AM PDT
On one level, this feature seems particularly well-suited for businesses, who can now assign their employees different responsibilities on the website. After all, co-founder and chief executive David Rusenko said businesses actually make up the majority of Weebly's user base. But he said the team editing feature also supports one of the common ways consumers use the service, where one person creates a site for their friend or family member, then hands it off. The new feature doesn't really change the existing Weebly interface, unless you try to edit a page that another user is already editing. When that happens, the site will block you. You can add as many administrators (who have full editing powers) to your site as you want as part of Weebly's free package, but if you want to limit people's access to select pages, or to prevent them from doing anything except review analytics and read comments, then you'll have to upgrade to the pay version. San Francisco-based Weebly is also revamping its homepage today to emphasize a new message about the company. Weebly was well-known initially for its simple, drag-and-drop interface, but Rusenko said that as the site has added features over the past few years, it has become increasingly powerful and professional. So the new home page describes the service as "Free. Powerful. Professional." and it highlights some of those features. The homepage also says that Weebly now has more than 6 million users, about two and a half years after it hit the 1 million user mark and profitability. The company was incubated by Y Combinator and has raised $650,000 from Steve Anderson, Ron Conway, Mikes Maples, Aydin Senkut (who also invested in VentureBeat), Rajeev Motwani, and Paul Buchheit. Companies: Weebly People: David Rusenko
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| 3 enterprise activities that should stay out of the Cloud Posted: 20 Apr 2011 09:00 AM PDT This post is sponsored by Xerox.
But execs, take heed– certain activities and systems are still best handled outside of the Cloud. Here are three that come to mind: 1. Anything that involves really sensitive data. Many cloud-based enterprise products are still in their infancy, which means their security may not be airtight. That database of employee social security numbers, mothers’ maiden names, and bank account numbers may be better kept on the ground and away from hackers. 2. Highly customized systems. If you’ve spent years building the perfect intranet with a plethora of super-customized applications, switching to the Cloud may be more trouble than it’s worth. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. 3. Information you don’t want to share in court. Like cloud technology, the legal issues around info in the cloud are just beginning to emerge. Assume that anything you put in the Cloud can and will be used against you. What else belongs on this list? Tell us in the comments below. [Image via Horia Vartan/Flickr] Be sure to check out the previous article in this series, “Practice Fusion’s free health record system delivers.”
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| Ninja Joe is kicking butt in Chile Posted: 20 Apr 2011 09:00 AM PDT
Take Amensia Games’ Ninja Joe app. This addictive and retro-looking game asks users to help a character named Joe race across city rooftops in order to find four spheres and become a ninja. The graphics are simple but lovely, and there are 25 levels. The low-key fun of a game like this would likely have been lost on the hyper-competitive American market, but Chileans love it. In the first for months of its debut, one million users downloaded the free version of Ninja Joe and one thousand users downloaded the premium version via the Nokia Ovi store. The game is the cornerstone of the Santiago-based Amnesia’s success. According to a presentation made at the Forum Nokia conference in San Francisco last year, in the third quarter of 2010 Chile was responsible for more than one million downloads from the Nokia Ovi store. Users in Peru were responsible for more than 250 million downloads over the same time period. Amnesia is positioning itself as one of the leading mobile game developers in Latin America. Watch for other companies vying for similar success in the region in the coming months.
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| Amazon teams up with Overdrive for Kindle library lending Posted: 20 Apr 2011 08:21 AM PDT
The move has been a long time coming for Amazon, which doesn’t support the open ePub format on the Kindle — something that has made it difficult for libraries to take advantage of the device so far. It’s also a shrewd maneuver for Amazon, since borrowing library books could lead to more ebook sales from users who couldn’t finish a book in time, or wanted to revisit a particular title that they’ve borrowed. Amazon has tapped Overdrive, a provider of ebook and audiobook distribution, for the service. Overdrive’s technology can easily integrate into existing library systems, and it currently has over 500,000 titles from more than 1,000 publishers in its library. The company’s service is already being used by more than 13,000 libraries, schools and other institutions internationally. Not surprisingly, Amazon says customers will be able to read borrowed ebooks on any Kindle application, in addition to the Kindle e-reader. That alone may help to drive more Kindle sales. Users who get comfortable borrowing Kindle titles on their phone or computer will definitely be tempted to move towards the full Kindle experience. Borrowed ebooks will also have one major advantage over print versions: you can easily carry over notes and highlights from a borrowed book to a purchased Kindle title. Amazon says that notes made in borrowed books won’t be seen by future borrowers, but they will remain available if you end up borrowing a title again. Amazon announced last week that it will offer a discounted $114 ad-supported Kindle. With library lending on the horizon, that discounted Kindle will look even sweeter to some (although I think Amazon should have lowered the cost to $99).
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| Hi5 becomes a top ten online game site Posted: 20 Apr 2011 06:00 AM PDT
St. John has been trying to shake Hi5’s legacy as an international social network since he joined the San Francisco firm in November, 2009. Back then, Hi5 had 60 million unique monthly users, but it didn’t really have a great way to make money from them. Hi5’s users have slipped to 30 million, but St. John has relentlessly steered the company into more lucrative social games. In worldwide online gaming unique visitors, Hi5 now ranks sixth as an online game site, with 21.7 million unique monthly visitors. It is ahead of some established online game portals such as Nickelodeon Casual Games (20.8 million), Yahoo Games (20.7 million), and MSN Games (18.6 million). Hi5 has more than 110 social games and more than 400 more coming soon. The top-ranked online game companies: Spil Games (49.8 million), GSN Games Networks and CPMStar (35.7 million), EA Online (32.9 million), WildTangent Media (29.6 million), and Xiamen Youjia Network (22.2 million). Bill Gossman, chief executive of Hi5, says the new ranking is a milestone in the company’s pivot from a social network to a social game destination. Of course, this is kind of like jumping from one big rival to another. Unable to beat Facebook, Hi5 is now going up against the likes of Zynga. The key to climbing higher in the ranks will be getting more exclusive games. Hi5’s new games include titles that have also been on Facebook, such as Millionaire City, Backyard Monsters, Barn Buddy, Resort World, and Bush Whacker. Hi5 has attracted the game developers by being friendly to them and giving them ways to get noticed via its SocioPath online game platform. Hi5 was founded in 2003 and the company has raised $34 million to date. Hi5 has 70 employees. Companies: hi5 People: alex st. john
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| Broadcastr brings location-based storytelling to Android Posted: 20 Apr 2011 06:00 AM PDT
Broadcastr, which opened up to public beta testing in February, allows anyone to create This American Life-esque stories. The Android app shares all of the key features from the service’s website and iPhone app, including the ability to listen to stories from around the world, as well as easily record your own story and tie it to a location. The app also includes the killer “Geoplay” feature from its iPhone sibling, which lets you automatically hear stories as you walk by their locations. I found it particularly nifty the first time around, and it performs just the same on Android: you could, for example, walk through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park and have the stories there automatically play. Personally, I’ve become attached to Broadcastr on the iPhone, and I suspect many Android users will feel the same way. The app makes it easy to tap into untold stories in neighborhoods you normally visit, and it’s a great way to familiarize yourself with new places. It remains to be seen how Broadcastr will compete against Audiboo, the current king of mobile voice sharing. Broadcastr focuses more on location, even though it has a similar follower system to Audioboo. The company currently has 60,000 active users since its public beta launch in March. We also don’t yet know how Broadcastr will eventually make money from the service, but I suspect that we’ll see sponsored stories soon enough. Broadcastr is based in New York City, and it has raised $250,000 in funding from a small group of angels. It’s currently seeking a seed round from firms in New York City and San Francisco.
Companies: Audiboo, Broadcastr
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| Do you need a mentor – or a teacher? Posted: 20 Apr 2011 06:00 AM PDT (Editor's note: Serial entrepreneur Steve Blank is the author of Four Steps to the Epiphany. This story originally appeared on his blog.) Lots of entrepreneurs believe they want a mentor. In fact, they're actually asking for a teacher or a coach. A mentor relationship is a two-way street. To make it work, you have to bring something to the party. Recently when I was at a conference taking questions from the audience, I got a question that I had never heard before. Someone asked, "How do I get you, or someone like you to become my mentor?" It made me pause (actually cringe.) As I gathered my thoughts, I realized that I've never thought much about the mentors I had, how I got them, and the difference between mentors, coaches and teachers. Teachers I try to engage them to see the startup world as part of a larger pattern; the lifecycle of how companies are born, grow and die. I attempt to offer them both theory, as well as a methodology, about building early stage ventures. And finally, I have them experience all of this first hand by teaching them theory side-by-side with immersive hands-on using Customer Development to find a business model. At times, the coffees, lunches and phone calls I have with current and past students are also a form of teaching. Most of the time students come with, "Here's the problem I have. Can you help me?" Usually, I'll give a direct answer, but sometimes my answer is a question. In both cases, inside or outside the classroom, I consider those activities as teaching. At least for me, mentorship is something quite different. Mentors At this time in my life, I was the world's biggest pain in the rear, lessons needed to be communicated by baseball bat, yet each one of these people not only put up with me, but also engaged me in a dialog of continual learning. Unlike coaching, there was no specific agenda or goal, but they saw I was competent and open to learning and they cared about me and my long-term development. I'm not sure it was a conscious effort on their part, (I know it wasn't on mine,) but it continued for years, and in some cases (with my partner Ben Wegbreit) for decades. What is interesting in hindsight is that although the relationship continued for a long time, neither of us explicitly acknowledged it. Now I realize that what made these relationships a mentorship is this: I was giving as good as I was getting. While I was learning from them – and their years of experience and expertise – what I was giving back to them was equally important. I was bringing fresh insights to their data. It wasn't that I was just more up to date on the current technology, markets or trends, it was that I was able to recognize patterns and bring new perspectives to what these very smart people already knew. In hindsight, mentorship is a synergistic relationship. Like every good student/teacher and mentor/mentee relationship, over time the student became the teacher, and this phase of relationship ends. All this was running through my head as I tried to think of how to answer the question from the audience. Finally I replied, "At least for me, becoming someone's mentor means a two-way relationship. A mentorship is a back and forth dialog – it's as much about giving as it is about getting. It's a much higher-level conversation than just teaching. Think about what can we learn together? How much are you going to bring to the relationship?" If it's not much, than what you really want/need is a teacher, not a mentor. If it's a specific goal or skill you want to achieve, hire a coach, but if you're prepared to give as good as you get, then look for a mentor. But never ask. Offer to give.
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| Rivet Games raises second round for web, social and mobile games (exclusive) Posted: 20 Apr 2011 05:30 AM PDT
The San Francisco company didn’t disclose the size of the round, but it said that it has now raised a total of $15 million. The funding shows that venture capitalists have indeed fallen in love with game developers, as the fundings continue unabated. It also means that it’s probably a good strategy for a game company to focus on social, mobile and web games all at once. The company is headed by former Playdom executive Jesse Janosov, who joined as chief executive in August, 2010. The company was formerly known as FooMojo and is now rebranded as Rivet games. FooMojo made games such as FooPets (pictured below). The round came from existing investors Softbank Capital, Baseline Ventures, and Floodgate. Also joining as a new investor is Outpoint Capital.
Janosov said that Facebook, mobile, web, PC and even console games are on a collision course, where gamers will have multiple views of their game data. Janosov said the company’s upcoming product takes new creative approaches to gaming on these platforms and that the company’s marketing will “set a new standard.” The company was originally founded as FooMojo in 2007 by Ron Hornbaker and Scott Sorochak. Now it has 33 employees. Janosov says that the company has a real engineering team that comes from the traditional game market. MetroGames has a scalable backend infrastructure and a 3D asset pipeline that could be used for multiple games. The company will launch a Facebook game in May and a mobile game after that. Clearly, there’s no shortage of ambition here. The young company will face a ton of competition. But as noted at a recent game venture capitalist event, times are both tough and exciting for game developers. Companies: Foomojo, Rivet Games People: Jesse Jansov, Ron Hornbaker, Scott Sorochak
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| LOLapps launches its Ravenstone Mine expansion for Facebook game Posted: 20 Apr 2011 05:00 AM PDT
As we noted in our previous story, that’s a trick from the page of PC game makers like Blizzard Entertainment, which keeps adding expansion areas to its online game world, World of Warcraft. Arjun Sethi, chief executive of San Francisco-based LOLapps, said in an interview that it took longer to polish the game than originally expected. But the goal remains the same: hanging on to a user as long as possible by coming up with fresh material. The expansion trend is gaining traction. Zynga recently launched its English Countryside expansion to its hit game FarmVille, and RockYou launched an expansion to Gourmet Ranch.
Ravenwood Fair has been a financial success because users have been spending money in the free-to-play game. In such games, users play for free and pay only when they want to buy a virtual good with real money. Much of the money spent in Ravenwood Fair was spent on consumables, or items such as energy, which can be bought over and over again. Typically, only 3 percent to 5 percent of users pay for games on Facebook. Ravenstone Mine takes place underneath the forest of Ravenwood Fair, using a similar art style and characters, said Sethi. Since the game is underground, it's a little darker in style and story. In Ravenwood Fair, users find themselves as a cute animal in a forest. The goal is to chop down trees and build a fair in the clearing and attract more cute animal visitors. But the forest is creepy and you have to constantly battle back the trees and monsters that try to scare your visitors. In Ravenstone Mine, the game play is very similar.
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| Argentina’s MetroGames targets hardcore gamers on Facebook Posted: 20 Apr 2011 05:00 AM PDT
If MetroGames and other companies such as Kabam succeed in cultivating the hardcore fans on Facebook, they could cash in big time. After all, Facebook has 600 million users and not everyone wants to play the cute games that Zynga makes. With Auto Hustle, you could say the stakes are pretty big, but the expectations of hardcore gamers are going to be a lot higher than other Facebook users. If it succeeds, the Buenos Aires-based company could join big rivals on a global stage. Damian Harburger, chief executive and founder of MetroGames, said in an interview his company’s goal is to take Facebook games to the next level. That includes real-time game play with better realism and graphics. When a character steals a car in the game, you actually control the character in real-time, or instantaneously. The goal is to make social games more console-like. “We want to make games that are completely different from the current hits on the web,” said Harburger. “We can’t use the same techniques as Zynga. We have to be innovative.” The game is free-to-play, meaning you can start playing for free and can pay real money for virtual goods. Over time, you can perform missions, earnings points and badges to become a world-class criminal. Showing off is a big part of what will make the game appeal to hardcore gamers, Harburger said. Of course, one game isn’t going to knock Zynga from the driver’s seat. Zynga has more than 263 million monthly active users on Facebook, according to AppData. To compete, MetroGames is launching more Facebook games and iPhone games in the near future. MetroGames already has 7 million monthly active users for its not-so-hardcore games such as Fashion World, Texas Grand Poker and Biotronic. Those games have been installed 60 million times globally and 1 million users play every day. The company has nine games on Facebook and 20 on Spanish-language sites. Beyond Zynga, rivals include CrowdStar, EA Playfish, Disney-Playdom, Digital Chocolate, PopCap, Wooga and LOLappps. The company has raised $5 million and one of its investors is Playdom. The company was founded in 2007 and it has 150 employees. Harburger said the company has the advantage of having low costs in Argentina and access to good talent and a fast-growing regional market. Companies: Crowdstar, Digital Chocolate, Disney-Playdom, EA Playfish, Facebook, MetroGames, Playdom, Zynga People: Damian Harburger
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| Smartphone “spam blocker” Mr. Number hits 2 millionth user and debuts new apps Posted: 20 Apr 2011 03:00 AM PDT
A version for BlackBerry smartphones will be available within two weeks, said the company. Its new apps intend to bring the concept of status from instant messaging to mobile voice and text, thus allowing a user to let their friends know when they are free for a call, when a text is preferred, or when they are busy. It also now has the added functionality of telling Mr. Number to send all a user’s calls to voicemail and then lets friends know when a they are free again. The San Francisco-based startup already blocks calls and texts from people and companies that a user has specified they do not want to hear from again.It also sends alerts about who is calling when an unrecognizable number crops up. The company says it does this by using crowd-sourced caller ID, spam detection and automated identification of telemarketers and other heavy dialers. The chance to “go undercover,” as it were, is clearly paying off: Mr. Number has tens of thousands of customers who pay between $1.99 per month and $9.99 per month for Caller ID, depending on the platform. The company also has a dedicated reverse lookup app on iPhone that is one of the top 10 paid apps in its category. Free versions of the service include advertising. Mr. Number used to be well-known startup Skydeck, which offered caller ID, human-written transcriptions from voicemail to text, and Web-based management. It also had a free, Google-powered transcription service for people unwilling to pay for the company's human transcribers. However, when Skydeck launched the caller ID service in October of 2009, it became the most popular feature, with 250,000 users to date. So, founder Jason Devitt renamed and refocused the company in June to leverage its obvious hit. "It took us a year to reach 1 million users but only four months to get to 2 million," said Devitt. "People tell their friends about us because we solve real problems, identifying mystery numbers and blocking spam calls and texts completely. The new version brings you more calls and texts from the people you actually want to hear from, by letting your friends know when you're free to talk." Devitt will be a chairman of VentureBeat’s Mobile Summit next week. Thus far, Skydeck has received one round of $4 million series A funding from Saban Ventures in 2008.
Companies: Mr. Number, Skydeck People: Jason Devitt
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| Samsung on Apple’s patent suit: lies damn lies Posted: 19 Apr 2011 11:21 PM PDT
The South Korean company denies any legal claim by Apple that its smartphones and tablets too closely resemble Apple products. Apple recently filed a lawsuit claiming that many Samsung mobile phones as well as its Galaxy Tab, violated various patents and trademarks by copying the look, product design, packaging and user interface of its iPad and iPhone. “Samsung will respond actively to this legal action taken against us through appropriate legal measures to protect our intellectual property,” the company stated in regards to Apple’s suit. Many comparisons between Samsung’s mobile device strategy and Apple’s strategy can be made. And this certainly isn’t the first time Samsung has resorted to copying another company’s device. Clearly, Apple feels it has a strong legal case — but as Samsung’s second largest client, it also has the power of leverage. In 2010 alone, Apple accounted for four percent of Samsung’s annual revenue through sales of semiconductors and display panels (among other things). While Samsung risks losing Apple as a client, its best defense may be counter action, since losing the legal battle would be far more costly to the company.
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| Deals & More: Decide lands $6M for electronics shopping service Posted: 19 Apr 2011 11:00 PM PDT Today’s funding announcements include new solutions for shopping, reading and computing:
Byliner raises $935K for new nonfiction destination: The company behind Byliner.com, a site offering archives of nonfiction writing, has raised a round of seed funding led by Freestyle Capital and SoftTechVC with participation from other investors. The site, which will officially launch in May, plans to offer its users recommendations and discussion forums for nonfiction work. The site will also distribute Byliner Originals, nonfiction pieces published in digital form by Byliner. The company is based in San Francisco. IO Turbine brings in $7.75M to improve virtualized computing performance: The San Jose-based software company has raised a new round of funding led by Lightspeed Venture Partners with participation from Merus Capital and angel investors. Founded in December 2009, the company has partnered with VMware and Microsoft and is working on a solution to address I/O bottleneck issues by using Flash technology. Companies: Byliner, Decide, farecast, Freestyle Capital, IO Turbine, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Madrona Venture Group, Maveron, Merus Capital, Microsoft, Softtechvc, VMWare People: Oren Etzioni
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| World Golf Tour expands strategically with TruGolf partnership Posted: 19 Apr 2011 10:24 PM PDT
The expansion will help World Golf Tour more deeply engage its 4 million-strong players on the web. While those aren’t huge numbers for a game, they’re pretty big for golf, and the thing about golf players is they tend to be rich. That’s a good audience for advertisers to target. TruGolf, which spun out from Access Software in 1999, makes realistic online golf simulations in a 3D animated environment. San Francisco-based World Golf Tour offers its own realistic golf experience, where a user can play at a famous course and see a realistic view of what it’s like to play the course from the golfer’s point of view. World Golf Tour created this browser-based online simulation by snapping pictures of famous courses from almost every point of view and then incorporating those images into its golf physics engine. Users have played more than 100 million rounds of golf on Facebook and the web, going on foursomes with buddies and chatting via internet voice connections. The average game time is 30 minutes. But one of the obstacles to growth is that it takes a lot of work to add new courses. Each course has thousands of 3D renderings of a golf course, all from slightly different views. In the deal with TruGolf, WGT players will get access to more than 100 more golf courses from around the world, said Chad Nelson, president of World Golf Tour, in an interview. YuChiang Cheng, chief executive of WGT, said the partnership will let TruGolf and WGT develop courses in parallel. TruGolf’s team built the technology behind Microsoft’s Links game, one of the best-selling PC games of all time. The first TruGolf course to be added to WGT is Cabo del Sol, a resort course in Los Cabos, Mexico, designed by golfer Jack Nicklaus. TruGolf courses will be available to WGT players for a “small greens fee,” while the 12 existing WGT courses are free of charge. Normally, WGT makes money through sponsorships and partnerships with the real course owners. This summer, WGT will add two more free courses: Congressional Country Club, host of the 2011 U.S. Open, and Royal St Georges Golf Club, host of the 2011 Open Championship. WGT is the online gaming partner of the USGA, the golf trade association, as well as the R&A and LPGA. WGT was founded in 2006 and has 40 employees. Rivals includes Electronic Arts’ Tiger Woods Online golf game. WGT has raised more than $20 million from Battery Ventures, Jafco and Panorama. Companies: Electronic Arts, TruGolf, WGT, World Golf Tour People: Chad Nelson, YuChiang Cheng
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| Sony’s new version of PlayStation Home virtual world goes live Wednesday Posted: 19 Apr 2011 09:57 PM PDT
Version 1.5 of PlayStation Home will introduce new technologies that third-party game developers can exploit. Sony promises the world will be “bigger and better” than ever. Home is a virtual world like Second Life where users can create their own avatars, or virtual characters, and wander around virtual spaces. One of the things that Sony is doing is re-focusing Home as a gamer’s paradise. If all goes well, Sony will be able to avoid the fate of other virtual worlds, mainly by targeting the people that use the PlayStation 3 the most: hardcore gamers. And if Home continues to grow, it will help differentiate the PS 3 from rival consoles from Nintendo and Microsoft. So this version of Home will feature games with real-time multiplayer characteristics, improved physics, and more realistic graphics and animations. The image above is a scene from Sodium 2: Project Velocity, a sci-fi racing game from Lockwood Publishing. Lockwood’s earlier Sodium game is one of the most popular titles embedded within Home. With the new update, developers will be able to create live action first-person shooter games and peer-to-peer multiplayer racing games. Players will be able to save more versions of their avatars (24 altogether) use new face-building features, manage furniture in their virtual homes more easily, navigate more easily, and place objects within a personal space more easily. There will be more chat log options and new spaces such as Sodium Blaster’s Paradise, pictured below. Companies: Sony
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Popular website-building service 
Everyone is jumping aboard the enterprise cloud train these days, and in general that’s a good thing. It’s cheap and easy to outsource your company’s email and calendar systems to Google, or to rely on Microsoft Office to 
It’s tempting for mobile app developers to focus solely on the United States when creating their products, but some developers are finding success abroad in markets that are less saturated and more open to quirky applications.
Amazon’s Kindle e-reader will finally play nice with libraries. The company announced today that it will 
Perhaps it was the sumo wrestling. Alex St. John, president of social network 
Following on the heels of 
This April 25-26, VentureBeat is hosting its inaugural 
"The nine months since I became CEO have seen the company evolve from its roots as the developer of virtual pet site, FooPets.com, toward a next generation, multi-platform game company," said Janosov in a statment. "Going forward, we are leveraging the new DNA of the company to deliver core games to core gamers, across a variety of platforms. Combining the gaming experience with state of the art analytics and modern marketing, we aim to change how games are built and delivered."
LOLapps
The first game, designed by Doom co-creator John Romero, was a huge hit for LOLapps, putting it on the map in terms of serious games on the social network. Today, Ravenwood Fair still ranks as No. 15 with more than 11.8 million monthly active users. That’s pretty good for a game that launched in October, given the usual shelf life for a Facebook game. If Ravenstone Mine takes off, we could see similar strategies at other social game companies where they update existing games rather than take risks on something new.
Ravenstone Mine was created by a team led by Romero, who has since started his own game studio, Loot Drop. The effort was large enough that LOLapps scaled back on other projects to pour more resources into it. LOLapps competes with the likes of Zynga, EA-Playfish, Disney-Playdom and CrowdStar.
One of these days, hardcore games are going to find a big audience on Facebook. That’s the goal of 
Your goal in the game is to become a world-class criminal, sort of like in Grand Theft Auto on the consoles. You can buy virtual goods such as weapons, cars, bribes and more. That’s a far cry from breeding sheep in FarmVille, and it’s more like the big-spending style of hardcore game players, who have been fairly quiet as a demographic on Facebook.
This April 25-26, VentureBeat is hosting its inaugural 
Samsung, the latest company to enter into a legal slap fight with Apple over patent and trademark violations, fired back with a promise of counter-action against its rival’s recent accusations.
Decide gets $6M for eCommerce company: The Seattle-based company 
Sony’s PlayStation Home virtual world for PlayStation 3 gamers will get a makeover tonight and re-open Wednesday morning.
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