I’m here in Seattle Washington awaiting tonight’s Bejeweled Twist launch party. It was a long trip considering Chicago’s the leading city for airport traffic and the wind didn’t allow for a speedy departure. Arriving at 2:00 a.m left me cold, hungry and in dire need of sleep.
Today it’s bright and sunny, still cold as hell, but slightly well rested and awaiting the upcoming launch of Bejeweled Twist. This is by far the biggest launch for a casual game that I’ve seen in the history of casual games so the experience should be a great one. We’re not talking about Bejeweled Cookies anymore, this is the real thing. I’ve got the camera ready and I’ll get some photos and experiences later tonight.
PopCap’s Website to Go Radio Silent In Advance of Bejeweled Twist™ Launch
But It’s a Good Thing – Bejeweled Twist Site Redesign and Live Launch Event Webcast Await Site Visitors
SEATTLE, Washington – October 24, 2008 — PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, will be shuttering its website (www.popcap.com) for six hours prior to the formal unveiling and official launch of Bejeweled Twist™ next Monday, October 27, at a gala celebration in downtown Seattle. The site will reopen at approximately 7:00 p.m. PDT that evening after going offline six to seven hours earlier – during which time the site will undergo a revolutionary makeover to celebrate the arrival of PopCap’s biggest game to date. When the site reopens, it will be co-hosting a live webcast of the Bejeweled Twist launch event being held at Seattle’s Experience Music Project museum. (The webcast will also be available via AllGames.com) At approximately 7:40 p.m., Bejeweled Twist for PC will become available via web download at www.popcap.com, as the game officially launches to the world.
“We’re really excited to be covering this historic event, and plan to bring every bit of the excitement and action to viewers worldwide via our webcast,” said Scot Rubin, founder of AllGames.com and a webcast veteran of more than a dozen years. “A new installment in the Bejeweled lineup is cause for celebration among casual and hardcore fans alike, and the webcast will capture it all, from game demos to the on-stage performances, as well as interviews with gamers, analysts and executives.”
The Bejeweled Twist launch event will offer everything from aerial acrobats to a steampunk-inspired “prototype” of the new game’s input interface, as well as a demo of Bejeweled Twist given by all three company co-founders. All other details of the new game, the biggest, most ambitious title in PopCap’s history, are being withheld until the launch event. Credentialed journalists interested in attending the event in person can contact PopCap PR for more information and to RSVP.
Bejeweled is available for more than a dozen devices and platforms and is the most popular casual game of the 21st century. More than 350 million copies of Bejeweled/Bejeweled 2 have been downloaded from the web, accounting for nearly a third of the 1 billion-plus downloads of all PopCap® titles. Tens of millions of copies of Bejeweled have been installed on mobile phones worldwide, and more than 25 million units of the game have been sold across all platforms, amounting to over $300 million in consumer spending over the history of the game. Further, PopCap’s games are the most played games in the history of casual gaming: the Bejeweled franchise alone has been enjoyed for more than 6 billion hours by consumers worldwide, with no end in sight.
About PopCap
PopCap Games (www.popcap.com) is the leading multi-platform provider of “casual games” — fun, easy-to-learn, irresistible computer games that appeal to everyone from age 6 to 106. Based in Seattle, Washington, PopCap was founded in 2000 and has a worldwide staff of over 200 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C., Dublin, Ireland and Shanghai. Its timeless games have been downloaded more than 1 billion times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship title, Bejeweled®, has sold more than 25 million units across all platforms. Constantly acclaimed by consumers and critics, PopCap’s games are played on the Web, desktop computers, myriad mobile devices (cell phones, smartphones, PDAs, Pocket PCs, iPod, iPhone and more), popular game consoles (such as Xbox), and in-flight entertainment systems. PopCap is the only casual games developer with leading market share across all major sales channels, including web portals, retail stores, consoles, mobile phones and MP3 players.
The game industry, like other entertainment avenues, is a risky business in which publishers have to pick titles they “predict” will do well in the market while passing on other “risky” propositions. While a the good ol’ shooter title will break sales records, the market cannot rely on one genre to carry the business especially considering many of these titles are forgotten within two months from launch. Publishers are going to be forced in expanding their reach to “family games” in order to finance new blockbuster titles.
The idea of designing a “family” game isn’t new to our industry, as a matter of fact, it’s one of the oldest cornerstones of video game entertainment. Pong, Centipede, Pac-Man, Space Invaders and many other classic titles were no doubt playable by the entire family, but things have changed. We’ve evolved from hit titles like Donkey Kong to hit titles like Halo. We migrated from 2D gaming to full 3D adventures and pixel graphics to pixel shaders, but where do we go next?
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