There hasn’t been any news of a new Bejeweled game being developed by the folks at PopCap Games, but that doesn’t mean one isn’t in the works.
On August 2, PopCap Games registered the domain names BejeweledFrenzy.com (Whois), BejeweledFrenzy.net (Whois) and even BejeweledFrenzy.org (Whois), hinting that the EA-owned PopCap Games may be planning to unveil something.
Titles in the Bejeweled series include Bejeweled, Bejeweled 2, Bejeweled Twist, Bejeweled Blitz and Bejeweled 3.
The company’s last release of a new title was Bejeweled 3 in 2010.
Bejeweled Frenzy certainly has a nice ring to it, but for now, the game will have to remain speculation until PopCap makes an announcement.
At the time of this story, none of the domains resolve to a web page.
With Zynga’s latest Facebook game Cityville topping the charts as the most popular Facebook game in 2010, I thought I’d offer up a few predictions on Zynga’s next blockbuster game title in 2011. With Cityville, Farmville, and Frontierville numbering daily users in the millions, one can only guess what’s next for Zynga, like another game with “ville” in the title.
Back in late 2009, the game publisher went on a trademarking spree as pointed out by Games.com.
Libe Goad, wrote: “Zynga, the social game publisher responsible for FarmVille, PetVille, Mafia Wars and more, went on a trademarking spree during the month of December, securing 21 names for potential new games. Of course, many of the names follow the end with ‘ville,’ including TreasureVille, FrontierVille, CrimeVille and AnimalVille.”
The complete list of trademarks (which can viewed easily over at Trademarkia) included: Pet Hospital, Poker Blitz, Safari World, Treasureville, Zoo city, zoo island, mafia world, hotelville, hotel world, hospital world, hospitalville, frontierville, frontier world, frontier, crimeville, crime world, casino world, casino blitz, bountyville, animal world and animalville.
The game title Cityville, has spawned hundreds of domain registrations and websites with “cityville” in the name, ranging from CityvilleGuide.com to CityvilleGamecheats.net.
Zynga is known for using a myriad of companies and individuals for registering domain names, so predicting the next big game title might prove to be much harder. For example, the company used IP Cybercrime LLC to register its Cityville.com domain.
Predictions
What are your predictions for Zygna game titles in 2011?
Will the game developer go with a “ville” name? A “world” name?
Is the company somehow behind the recent buys of Songville.com, Dreamville.com, or Slotsville.com on Sedo? Or maybe RestaurantWorld.com (which was purchased for nearly $8,000 in September)?
The company has plenty of names to choose from, but who owns those names is the question. As I wrote about before, though Zynga might use a certain title for a game, it doesn’t always own the domain (even after launching the game).
Petville.com was launched in 2009 by Zynga, and the company acquired the domain name Petville.com from its previous owners for an undisclosed amount. Visit Petville.com, and a message at the top of the site reads: ‘the content that was previously found at petville.com can now be found at ipawz.com’.
Though Zynga owns Petville.com, Farmville.com and other ville domain names, it doesn’t own Fishville.com – which saw a spike in traffic according to Compete when the site launched in November 2009. It appears Zynga and the owners of Fishville.com couldn’t come to an agreement, but Zynga is doing just fine – its Fishville game owns nearly all the top spots on Google, and the company does own the .net which it uses for the game’s home page.
After selling for $38,225 in June at Moniker, CityVille is now bigger than FarmVille, Mashable is reporting.
Referring to the latest statistics provided by Appdata, a site that tracks Facebook application metrics, Cityville surpassed Farmville and the Facebook game now has nearly 17 million daily users. On Dec. 11, Cityville which had been online less than 2 weeks, had 6 million users and it has continued to grow at a phenomenal pace.
The top 10 Facebook apps on the leaderboard according to Appdata are:
1. CityVille
2. FarmVille
3. Phrases
4. Texas HoldEm Poker
5. FrontierVille
6. Causes
7. Mafia Wars Game
8. Café World
9. Phrases (new)
10. My Year In Status
Cookinggames.com is outpacing other Hallpass Media entertainment properties in visitor traffic according to the latest Compete rankings.
When the domain name CookingGames.com sold in January 2010 for $350,000 through NoktaDomains, casual gaming was suddenly the talk of the town, with many domain investors clamoring over the price in the blogs and forums. The online comments ranged from disbelief to shock.
Bill started the story with the following statement: “If you think Hallpass Media paid alot for cookinggames.com (350k) then you might be surprised at what we paid for stickgames.com…”
For those of you that still haven’t seen what the Cooking Games web site is all about, you can better appreciate the site’s draw by visiting the Most Popular Games section and as the site says, bake a delicious treat for a birthday, wedding, anniversary, special occasion or just whenever.
Hallpass Media has soft-launched its “crown jewel” Dressup.com, a casual gaming website loaded with dress-up games. The categories of games available range from world tour to celebrity, to careers and fashion, to family and makeover, along with a section that highlights the newest and most popular dressup games.
The launch of Dressup.com, is undeniably one of Hallpass Media’s most anticipated website launches.
As I wrote earlier this week, Bill Kara’s Hallpass Media entertainment network is one of the largest in the U.S., and the launch of dressup – will certainly improve its ranking. Parked, Dressup.com received nearly 60,000 unique visitors per month, according to a rough estimate provided by Compete.
Developed, the site stands to quickly increase its traffic as users immerse themselves in gameplay.
Casual gaming is a huge market and dress up games are one of the most popular types.
Want to dress up one of your favorite celebrities like Justin Bieber or Ashley Tisdale? You’re in luck. Dressup’s celebrity section lets you catch up on all the Bieber fever and more. You can get Justin Bieber to sing, dance, act all on Dressup.com. Here’s a look at another megastar that you can dress up: Ashley Tisdale.
According to Dressup.com:
With hundreds of unique Dressup games, this is the best place to get creative and design your own great styles! We offer almost every type of Dressup game you can think of and add more every week.
We have so many different Dressup games, there are so many things to do! Discover cultures and styles from all over the globe as you take our World Tour! Do you wish you could be a stylist for the stars? Get your favourite VIP ready for the red carpet with our Celebrity Games! Browse around our Job Fair and find your perfect career or just relax with the family in our Kids section.
FPS Networks
If you’re wondering how Bill Kara gets it all done, he is also the CEO of FPS Networks, a full service design and programming studio with over a decade of experience in Internet consulting.
FPS Networks owns and operates a network of websites reaching over 4 million unique viewers monthly. As an owner of multiple website properties and a vast portfolio of domain names, we are constantly evolving and learning. We bring this industry experience to our clients and as a result are able to provide solutions which are cost effective and efficient. Our office is located in Edmonton, Alberta Canada and we employee 23 full time programmers, designers, and engineers enabling us to provide a one-stop shop for all our clients needs.
Expect Dressup.com to gain top internet search ranking, like many of Hallpass Media’s launches in 2010. CookingGames.com for example, ranks # 1 in Google for the search term: cooking games. VirtualPets.com, another casual game site launched in 2010, has also landed on the first page of Google search results for the keywords: virtual pets.
Hallpass Media is building a best-in-class network with all of its properties, so check out Dressup.com during its “soft launch”.
You can also follow Dressup on Facebook, to get the latest updates on the web site and games.
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