Montreal, Canada – Analekta, an independent classical record company in Canada, is thrilled to announce Angèle Dubeau with La Pietà newest album Game Music. Her 36th album was devoted to film music and topped the Canadian charts for the last 9 months; this new recording features unrivalled performances of strong and striking works from some of the most popular video games in the world. Never before has the realm of video game music been imbued with such virtuosity and originality.

“I have never placed limits on my choice of repertoire, and for this project, I reached toward a unique world that was creative and vibrant in its originality,” explains Angèle Dubeau, the violinist and artistic director of La Pietà. “In my quest to discover the gems of video game music, I listened to many works written and revisited by composers of great talent. Above all, I wanted to avoid distorting them, and my intention has been to preserve the form that initially won over video game aficionados while at the same time breathing new life into them.”

As Angèle did previously when she picked film music, she assembled works that were powerful and evocative enough to have a life of their own. The album features, works associated with famous games such as Tetris, Final Fantasy, Halo 3, Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell, Assassin’s Creed and Angry Birds, as well as others heard in Chrono Trigger, Heavy Rain and Secret of Mana. The album is available for digital download and can be purchased on CD starting October 23 in Canada and on October 30 in the US.

Additionally a free companion App has been released with trivia on video game music and clips from the album, it can be downloaded here.

Considered one of the most prominent violin virtuosos in Canada since she was 15, Angèle Dubeau has led a dazzling career in the great concert halls of the world. Her virtuosity and musicality have garnered many prizes over the years, and is one of the rare classical violinists in the world to have been awarded gold records. She has already sold over 500,000 albums in her career.

Driven by a constant desire to innovate, Angèle Dubeau founded La Pietà in 1997, an all-female string orchestra featuring some of Canada’s best musicians. From early on, the ensemble gained a solid reputation, playing Canada’s most prestigious venues and on television. The Los Angeles Times noted that “Dubeau is an exciting, dynamic fiddler…The performances were consistently robust and inquiring, taking nothing for granted…Dubeau’s well-drilled band played with agility, power, a nicely weighted sound and a fierce joy in the doing.”

To download the album on iTunes please go here.

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Espoo, Finland – Rovio Entertainment, the creators of Angry Birds, announced their newest game on September 4, 2012, Bad Piggies, launching September 27 for iOS, Android and Mac. This innovative game turns the franchise on its head by letting the fans play as the pigs – with all new, never-before-seen gameplay – and not a slingshot in sight.

“There’s a lot of empathy towards the lovable enemies from the Angry Birds games, and we’ve been constantly asked: what about the pigs’ side of the story?” said Mikael Hed, CEO of Rovio. “Bad Piggies gives you the chance to play as the second-most-loved characters in the Angry Birds universe, and explore this rich world through their green eyes.”

The new game will launch on iOS, Android and Mac on September 27. Windows Phone, Windows 8 and PC versions will follow shortly.

“We’ve had a lot of fun creating a totally new and unique gameplay experience,” said Petri Järvilehto, EVP Games at Rovio. “There’s so much more to these pigs than what is seen in the Angry Birds games, and Bad Piggies is the first glimpse into what’s going on in the imaginative and ingenious minds of the pigs.”

To get in on the action and see all the gameplay news first, go to www.badpiggies.com, follow the pigs on Twitter twitter.com/badpiggies and like the pigs on Facebook facebook.com/badpiggies. Stay tuned during the next few weeks, and see what the pigs are up to.

For more information, please contact media@rovio.com.

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Remember when phones only had snake on a tiny, grainy screen? Back then phones were only used for communication, calling and maybe texting people. The smart phone industry has changed all of that; now phones are more than communication devices, they are integral parts of our lives.

Smart phones act as our daily secretaries, alerting us to events and daily tasks, keeping notes for us, storing music, taking pictures, keeping track of contacts, and much, much more. With all of the different kinds of smart phones out there – like the Apple iPhone and Google Android – almost everyone has one or wants one.

Smart phones don’t only record and maintain our lives, they also provide us with the essential service of entertainment. Whether one is waiting in a doctor’s office, traveling, bored waiting for someone, looking for something to do in between the slew of commercials, or really just bored for any reason, smart phones can help.

Most of the best smart phone games out there fall into two categories: destruction or classic. The destruction games are almost the opposite of most of the popular Facebook games like CityVille and FarmVille that rely on the user to build and care for something. The classic games are those that have been around since simple games were first introduced to phones and the internet that everyone loves and has played at some point. In both cases, phone games have to be simple and easy to return to, since most people will be playing these games while waiting for something that will eventually interrupt their game.

The number one smart phone game is – not surprisingly – Angry Birds. According to the Guardian, Angry Birds saw over 200 million downloads in 2011. This destructive and classic game has had more than a billion downloads since its creation and has led to several spin-offs including Angry Birds: Seasons, Angry Birds: Rio, and Angry Birds: Space.

The original game made the player use some of his or her physics skills while shooting angry birds at the fortresses of green pigs. The narrative behind the game is that these green pigs have stolen the birds’ eggs and the birds are trying to get them back. The game gets progressively harder, and with 270 levels, can become very difficult.

On a related note, last year The Guardian’s Game Blog listed Bird Zapper as one of the best phone games of 2011. In this game the player matches colored birds to then electrify those birds and get them off the phone wire – supposedly the plot of a vengeful squirrel. Apparently smart phone users have some kind of fascination with killing or harming those of the avian species.

The second place winner in best phone games is one of the newest, Fruit Ninja. According to Joystiq there have been over 20 million downloads across all platforms. There are several different modes to play Fruit Ninja in, but all of them share the same concept where fruits fly up and the player is supposed to destroy them by swiping his or her finger across the screen. If the player destroys a lot of fruit he can get bonuses, but the player also has to avoid fruit bombs.

In the Classic mode the fruit begins to fly a little faster and has more obstacles over time, so there are different difficulty levels. However, if a player prefers to zone out and play a simple game he can play in Zen mode that lets the fruit fly for a certain amount of time but at a fairly constant rate. It is a simple, mindless game that is extremely addicting.

In third place is the latest sensation since Words With Friends, Draw Something. Draw Something is a digital version of another classic game, Pictionary, but now the players get to use their own fingers as the paintbrush/pencil. The game became an overnight sensation that supplanted Words With Friends as the most popular game in 2012. The Telegraph reported that only about a month after its release in February of 2012 the game was averaging about 3,000 drawings a second by players of the game.

In fourth place on the list of best phone games is Words With Friends. A digital spin off the classic game of Scrabble, Words With Friends has quickly become one of the most popular phone and Facebook games. The game is played virtually with a friend as the players go back and forth placing words on the board.

There is also a chat function, a little pointless on a phone (that part was more made for Facebook), that allows players to leave messages for each other when the other player returns. One of the greatest parts of Words With Friends is that anyone can play whenever they want, meaning the players can think for as long as necessary.

One of the best features of Words With Friends and Draw Something is that the difficulty level varies depending on who the user is playing and the luck of the ‘draw’ whether the ‘draw’ is letter tiles or what he or she is assigned to draw.

In fifth place for best smart phone games is the long-lasting Tap-Tap Revenge. Although not necessarily one of the most downloaded games, it is definitely one of the most addicting and fun. In Tap-Tap Revenge, now in its fourth version, the player listens to a song and taps a pattern at just the right time; essentially the game is Dance-Dance Revolution for fingers.

For even more of the best smart phone games see ‘Even More of the Best Smart Phone Games of 2012.’

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In ‘The Best Smart Phone Games of 2012′ we listed the first five of the best games to keep you entertained and occupied; this article continues that list. So far the list stands:

1. Angry Birds

2. Fruit Ninja

3. Draw Something

4. Words With Friends

5. Tap-Tap Revenge

In sixth place is the incredibly fun Temple Run. In the game the player is a character who is running from a mob of monsters. The character continuously runs and the player must swipe to the left, right, down, and up to make the character dodge obstacles and jump gaps. The player can collect coins for bonus points and speed/invincibility boosts, while the game gets progressively harder.

In seventh place is the simple, yet seriously addicting game, Flood-It. In Flood-It the player begins on the far left, top corner of a board of colored squares. The player then chooses colors of neighboring squares to expand his or her control of a board. The catch is that there are a limited number of moves before the game is over and the player has to start on a new board. The game is easy on the smallest board setting, but the medium and hard settings are nearly impossible and require a significant amount of strategy.

In eighth place is the Android original, Alchemy. Alchemy has players start with four basic elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The player then combines the elements to make new things. For example, if the player combines earth and water it makes swamp. The combinations are endless since the new creations can be added to other elements to make new things, and the combinations get stranger and stranger – which also means they get harder and harder. Eventually the player will be able to create anything from worms to aliens.

In ninth place is Tetris, the Nintendo classic. Just like the original, the player rearranges blocks to get rid of rows and stop them from filling up the screen. In the smart phone version the player taps the shapes to rotate them and fit them into place. Ultimately, this has been a favorite of many for years and it should be of no surprise that it made the list.

The last game to make our list of the top ten smart phone games is Bejeweled 2. Also a favorite of Facebook users, Bejeweled 2 has the player match up gems in a row to destroy them and bring in new gems. The player must race against a ticking clock to destroy as many as possible. This game is yet another classic that many people have been playing for years; now everyone can play it on their phones.

Ultimately, what smart phone users seem to like in their games are destructive, mindless games that will keep them entertained while they are sitting around waiting for a friend or while traveling. These games are not only the best for that but some of them, like Words With Friends or Draw Something, are also a great one to stay in touch with friends.

Imag Courtesy of    Fruit Ninja

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This article is a continuation of the Best Facebook Games of 2012, exploring the most exciting and popular games on the social media site.

Fifth on the list of most popular games in 2012 is the Sims Social. Similar to the classic Sims game, users control the life of an individual and are responsible for everything he or she does. There are only nine traits that the characters in the game can have, but unlike the previous Sim games these traits can be leveled. The game also has virtual celebrities lake Lady Gaga and Elvis Presley.

Although Sims Social only had 15.7 million users in the month of June and has 2.8 million daily users, it has been an important feature of Facebook since games were released. Prior to Sims there was Yoville, a version of Sims that Facebook created before it partnered with the Sims franchise. In YoVille, the top game of 2009, users would control a character, his home, his job, and could play minigames.

In sixth place is the well-known Words With Friends. One of the most popular daily games is Words With Friends. Although it does not reach as wide a base as other games, with only 17.1 million users in the month of June, it is one of the most popular that is used daily with 7 million users; it has also been listed as one of the best Facebook games of all time by Kotaku. Words With Friends is similar to Scrabble but is online with a chat feature that allows players to leave messages for their friends.

In seventh place is the extremely popular Bubble Witch Saga that had 20.7 million users in June 2012 alone and has 6.2 million daily users. Similar to Peggle or Bubble Island the user must destroy colored bubbles by matching bubbles of the same color. Bubble Witch Saga was also listed as one of the best Facebook games of all time on Kotaku.

In eighth place is the Hidden Chronicles. In this game the user searches for a list of hidden objects in different rooms in order to solve a mystery. It has 5.1 million daily users and had 20.4 million users in the month of June.

In ninth place is the very well-known Angry Birds. Made popular through a phone app, the user throws angry birds at green pigs who have stolen the birds’ eggs. The game has been gaining in popularity and had 19.9 million users in June 2012 and has an average of 3 million users a day. Angry Birds was also on Kotaku’s top nine Facebook games of all time.

In tenth place is are two classic games that are very similar in game play: Bejeweled Blitz and Diamond Dash. Diamond Dash had 18.4 million users in June and has 4.3 million daily users. Bejeweled Blitz has an average of 3.4 million users a month and is very similar in game play. In both games the player rearranges gems to get rid of sets within a time limit.

Although these are the most popular games of 2012 the nature of the Facebook social network means that what is popular is constantly changing. Facebook has released a new Marvel: Avengers Alliance game that is a 2D fighter. It has been listed as one of the best Facebook games by Kotaku and has been climbing in Facebook popularity. Currently the game has 9.4 million users a month and has had the fourth highest gain in June with 2.1 million users.

Ultimately what is popular this year and what is popular next year may change drastically in regards to which games are being played, but it seems clear that Facebook users prefer the classics and city-building more than any other types.

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Historically, Nintendo’s GameBoy consoles have always defined the handheld gaming experience. Intermittent efforts from Sega and Sony over the years have been unable to unseat Nintendo as the king of handhelds.

According to the latest sales figures from Sony, the PS Vita has surpassed 1.2 million units sold worldwide, despite an unenthusiastic reception in Sony’s home country of Japan.

In Europe, first week sales of the PS Vita outsold Nintendo’s new handheld console, the 3DS. In the United States and Japan, however, first-week sales figures for the Vita lagged behind other handheld gaming consoles of the current and previous generations.

The 3DS sold seven times as many units as the PS Vita worldwide last week. 3DS games have also sold well, making up 7 of the top 10 best-selling games of the previous week.

Nintendo’s perennial success with handhelds has had a massive effect on the platform as a whole. Of the top five best-selling handheld consoles of all time, four of them are made by Nintendo. Gamers who play handhelds have come to expect a certain experience, and this experience has been almost entirely defined by Nintendo’s vision.

The PS Vita also has its own strong vision for itself. It is meant to be the home console experience in your hands, with a large, high-definition screen and graphics comparable to the home experience. And this, possibly, is where it went wrong: It’s stepping on too many toes at once.

For the cost of a PS Vita (about $300 USD), you could buy an actual home console. And because the Vita requires a memory card made by Sony, that only works with the Vita, for an addition $100, you could probably find a Nintendo DS on the cheap for that price as well.

Handheld gamers do not expect, and quite possibly are not even enticed by, the ability to play home console games on a handheld system. The most popular handheld games by far are iOS games, which are often quick, shallow, and addictive. Even GameBoy and DS games are largely episodic, with frequent opportunities to quit and come back later.

Console games, on the other hand, are meant for prolonged play. To try to fit a full console experience into an intrinsically stop-and-go format is at worst a misjudgement of the nature and appeal of the platform.

At best, it suits a very particular, perhaps European, demographic. If you do not have the space in your apartment for a home entertainment system, and use trains or busses more often than a car to get from place to place, being able to experience console gaming in a handheld format could have appeal.

Taking into consideration, however, that the largest gaming markets are in the United States and Japan, the Vita seems poorly thought through. For now, gamers who want a home console experience still prefer to play on an actual home console. Add to that the exorbitant price tag of the Vita, its aesthetically unimpressive OS, and the additional hidden cost of a proprietary memory stick, and the Vita seems to be stepping on its own toes as well.

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The Daily launched its free Angry Birds Space Guide App, offering fans of the popular game an exclusive first look at Angry Birds Space. Available on the iPhone and iPad, the Guide includes inside scoops on the characters and gameplay, exclusive photos and features, and takes consumers behind-the-scenes of Angry Birds Space game. The Daily’s Angry Birds Space Guide App will also be available for Android users on March 21. Angry Birds Space will make its debut on iOS, Android, PC and Mac on March 22.

Rovio Entertainment, the entertainment media company and creator of Angry Birds, worked exclusively with The Daily to provide content for the custom-designed pages of the Angry Birds Space Guide App, which offers interactive features, including:

• Insider information on the new features in the game
• An introduction to the new bird characters
• Behind the scenes with the developers in Helsinki
• Video of the lead artist drawing the new characters – and teaching The Daily how to do it
• Educational information about space and links to cool space apps
• Information on space tourism at work
• 360 degree photo of the Milky Way

“This is the ultimate guide to Angry Birds Space,” says Ville Heijari, VP of Franchise Development at Rovio Entertainment. “If you’re an Angry Birds fan looking to understand the ins and outs of the new game, or just looking for an amazing multimedia experience around space and Angry Birds Space, you’re going to love it.”

“None of us really knew what we were getting into when we traveled 4,000 miles and seven time zones to do this story. But after fighting jet lag, subzero temperatures, and some fierce deadlines I think we’ve created something wholly unique,” says Daniel Dumas, Deputy Technology Editor who was among the team from The Daily to travel to Helsinki to develop the Guide.

“The Daily’s Angry Birds Space Guide is chock full of exclusive content about the game you won’t find anywhere else. It also takes readers on a wild tour of the cosmos — everything from its deepest mysteries to the people who explore it — and makes this special edition truly amazing.”

The Angry Birds Space Guide is free in the App Store: iPad link and iPhone link

This is the fifth custom publication offered by The Daily since its February 2011 launch. Others include: The Official Super Bowl Commemorative App with the NFL, The Daily’s Pro-Football Guide, The Gift and Gadget Guide, The College Bowl Guide 2011-12, and The Elizabeth Taylor Tribute Magazine.

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‘Parking Frenzy’ has scaled to the seventh position on ‘Free Games’ section in the Android market in USA making it probably the first game from India to have featured this high in the space. Traditionally, the top slots are occupied by games such as Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja.

A product of Games2win the Parking Frenzy game has been downloaded 2.3 million times (as per Google Android statistics) and played over 8.5 million times in a span of just 10 days since it was launched.

Flurry’s analytics revealed that the game has 2.2 minutes of median time spent, 20.7% returning users and 350k Daily Active Users (DAUs). Alok Kejriwal, CEO of Games2win said, ”I am happy that we have scored this hit, but honestly it’s about time many more Indian Gaming Companies began featuring in the top ranks on the Android and iOs Apps market places.”

“Parking Frenzy is not a Bollywood or a Cricket Game. It’s a game about parking cars in an increasing level of difficulty. That’s a game that people like to play all over the world, not just in India.” Alok observed. According to Alok Kejriwal, Parking Frenzy’s biggest downloads are from the USA, UK, Germany, Spain and the Netherlands.

“Going forward, we are aggressively creating more ‘global’ titles for Android and iOs, with the sole intention of being a global gaming company. “ Noted Alok Kejriwal Aakrit Vaish, Director of Operations, India, Flurry, said, “It’s not just about downloads, but also usage. That is where Parking Frenzy is up there with the biggest smartphone games in the world. Good to finally see an original made in India production make it.”

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In a recent interview with Eurogamer.net, Angry Birds developer Rovio revealed the level at which they value themselves. Quoted as being “north” of the estimated $1.3 billion that EA is going to spend on picking up Popcap Games, developer Rovio isn’t planning on selling the Angry Birds name for chump change anytime soon.

For perspective: Popcap Games have been responsible for a very respectable number of games we’ve all sunk at least a few hours into (a conservative estimate for some), such as the Bejeweled series and Plants vs. Zombies. Given the track record of Popcap, is Rovio perhaps being a little unrealistic? Rovio doesn’t think so, according to this quote from the Eurogamer.net interview with Ville Heijari, the VP of franchise development at the Angry Birds developer:

“Of course like any business if the price is right, ha!” he exclaimed. “But we’ve set the bar pretty high from early on, because we really think we have a lot of opportunities with our Angry Birds IP and there’s a lot of creativity at the studio beyond Angry Birds. It was never a strategy here to quickly cash in on anybody who comes waving a wad of cash our way.”

 

There’s something terribly important to consider about Rovio’s self-pricing: they have floated entirely on the Angry Birds intellectual property. For anyone looking to acquire Rovio, it should be considered whether or not they can continue to develop games on the level of Angry Birds. Or perhaps that’s not nearly as important as the Angry Birds property, itself, seeing as the name has produced an exorbitant amount of income for Rovio by this point. Just recently, in fact, Angry Birds surpassed 250 million downloads across all platforms, a number which is undeniably formidable.

Should EA, among other interested parties, be looking instead to buy the Angry Birds property itself, in that case? Just the other day, on my way out of the super-market, there was a claw machine full of Angry Birds plush toys. It’s actually inaccurate to consider it “full,” as well, with the number of plush toys missing indicating that people were at least playing it. I’ve seen people wearing Angry Birds shirts. I’ve seen Angry Birds hats.

There’s even an Angry Birds board game, made by Mattel. Even if I doubt stuffing claw machines is the most lucrative venture for Rovio, it certainly proves that a property based on a fun, but unchanging gameplay archetype can reach a massive level of exposure. We’ll just have to wait and see if Rovio can reproduce the same sort of addiction-creating gameplay in future releases. If Rovio can manage another hit on the scale of Angry Birds – a feat which they seem confident in achieving – then perhaps their price-tag won’t quite seem so outlandish.

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