Last week, hi5 sponsored Casual Connect Seattle 2010 and hosted an event to celebrate the launch of the hi5 Developer Portal. The developer portal is designed to expedite the deployment and launch of games on hi5.com. On the portal, developers now have access to Virtual Goods and Gifts APIs for hooking into the highly active hi5 gift economy. Additionally, developers can access API documentation (both OpenSocial and Facebook-compatible interfaces) for all integration points, sample source code, and reference guides on promoting and monetizing games on hi5. Developers can also submit their games and applications to hi5 for approval directly from the portal, and manage all their applications on hi5 from one place. Visit http://developer.hi5.com for more information.Leading up to the main event last week, we released a video trailer depicting hi5's President and CTO Alex St. John challenging Facebook to a sumo wrestling smackdown. Representing Facebook at the main event was three-time World Sumo Champion Byamba. The main event was held last Tuesday among a large audience of game industry professionals attending Casual Connect Seattle. While the battle between Alex and Byamba was fierce, hi5 came out victorious as the sumo wrestling champion! To watch the video trailer and footage of the sumo smackdown event, visit:
In addition to our announcement of the hi5 Developer Portal, several other casual game companies made announcements at Casual Connect Seattle, including: Oberon launched a new e-commerce platform for social and casual game distribution called Blaze, GSN and Arkadium partner to create a skill-based version of Facebook app Mahjonn Dimensions, and Offerpal Media launched a new user acquisition and re-engagement solution for social game developers called SocialKast.
Prior to this week's announcement that Disney acquired social game developer (and hi5 partner) Playdom, CEO John Pleasants gave a talk at Casual Connect Seattle 2010 about growing pains in the social game market. Pleasants expressed why scale truly matters, and how success stories on Facebook platform are now concentrating on a fewer number of games gaining a larger portion of the audience. Additionally, he discussed the industry need to design social games that are truly social and engaging. To video video footage of the presentation, visit: http://www.socialtimes.com/2010/07/casual-connect-playdom-ceo-john-pleasants-discusses-social-game-growth-video/.
Ohai's Susan Wu presented on social game design principles at the conference - sharing learnings from Ohai's development of City of Eternals. Some of the key takeaways include: all social games need to have a clearly defined daily loop, women will play MMO games (70% of the most active audience playing City of Eternals were women), and less than 3D graphics can still provide a deep gaming experience. You can view a snippet of Susan's presentation on the hi5 YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/hi5networks1#p/a/u/2/IJovnwPCcKQNext up, hi5 representatives will be attending GDC Europe in Cologne (August 16-18). If you're interested in meeting with our team during the conference, please contact us to request a meeting: http://developer.hi5.com/php/contact.php
Are you ready to rumble?! Alex St. John's war of the words against Facebook has captivated the gaming world, but on Tuesday, July 20, the time for talk will be over as St. John faces off against none other than the Facebook behemoth itself in the sumo wrestling battle of the decade. Come watch the live action in Seattle at this can't-miss event!
Additionally, celebrate the official launch of the hi5 Developer Portal with us at this event. Through this new portal, developers will be able to integrate and publish content on the hi5 platform quickly and easily. Get a sneak preview of the portal in beta here: http://developer.hi5.com
Doors open at 9:00pm, fight begins at 11:00pm. For more information, and to RSVP for this event, visit: http://hi5casualconnect.eventbrite.com/
Here are some of the latest news and highlights in the social gaming industry that took place this week:
According to a report from VentureBeat last week, Facebook is shuttering its virtual goods store after three years and is focusing on building out its Credits online payments system. hi5's President and CTO, Alex St. John, wrote an opinion piece on this news for Industry Gamers. In this piece, St. John states that Facebook is clearly not dedicated to e-commerce as a result of shutting their own virtual gifts store, so developers should take a harder look at whether Facebook is the right platform to increase audience acquisition and monetize their games and apps. To read the full piece, visit Industry Gamers.
Early in the week, TechCrunch revealed that Google had quietly invested between $100 million to $200 million in FarmVille developer Zynga as part of its preparation to launch a new Google Games platform later this year. Digg founder Kevin Rose and a former Facebook chief technical officer, have suggested in recent weeks that the search-engine giant is working on a social network called Google Me geared toward rivaling Facebook. This social network is intended to build off of Google Buzz, which has been widely criticized by tech pundits.
Offerpal Media announced that they were laying off an unspecified number of staff, in part because it lost out to rival TrialPay in the race to provide alternative payments with Facebook's new virtual currency system, Facebook Credits. Once apps are switched to Facebook Credits, Offerpal will no longer provide offers for those apps. As a result, Offerpal has to lay off its staff and re-focus its resources on growth areas that include providing offers for other game platforms such as the open web, new internet vertical sites, and mobile apps.
On Tuesday, July 20, we will by celebrating the official launch of our new Developer Portal with an event in Seattle. If you're headed to Casual Connect Seattle, we invite you to watch hi5's Alex St. John face off against none other than the Facebook behemoth itself in the sumo wrestling battle of the decade. Come watch the live action at this can't-miss event! Doors open at 9:00pm, fight begins at 11:00pm. For more details on the event, please visit: http://hi5casualconnect.eventbrite.com.
According to a report from VentureBeat last week, Facebook is shuttering its virtual goods store after three years and is focusing on building out its Credits online payments system. hi5's President and CTO, Alex St. John, wrote an opinion piece on this news for Industry Gamers. In this piece, St. John states that Facebook is clearly not dedicated to e-commerce as a result of shutting their own virtual gifts store, so developers should take a harder look at whether Facebook is the right platform to increase audience acquisition and monetize their games and apps. To read the full piece, visit Industry Gamers.
Early in the week, TechCrunch revealed that Google had quietly invested between $100 million to $200 million in FarmVille developer Zynga as part of its preparation to launch a new Google Games platform later this year. Digg founder Kevin Rose and a former Facebook chief technical officer, have suggested in recent weeks that the search-engine giant is working on a social network called Google Me geared toward rivaling Facebook. This social network is intended to build off of Google Buzz, which has been widely criticized by tech pundits.Offerpal Media announced that they were laying off an unspecified number of staff, in part because it lost out to rival TrialPay in the race to provide alternative payments with Facebook's new virtual currency system, Facebook Credits. Once apps are switched to Facebook Credits, Offerpal will no longer provide offers for those apps. As a result, Offerpal has to lay off its staff and re-focus its resources on growth areas that include providing offers for other game platforms such as the open web, new internet vertical sites, and mobile apps.
On Tuesday, July 20, we will by celebrating the official launch of our new Developer Portal with an event in Seattle. If you're headed to Casual Connect Seattle, we invite you to watch hi5's Alex St. John face off against none other than the Facebook behemoth itself in the sumo wrestling battle of the decade. Come watch the live action at this can't-miss event! Doors open at 9:00pm, fight begins at 11:00pm. For more details on the event, please visit: http://hi5casualconnect.eventbrite.com.- New Investor, Crosslink Capital, Leads with Participation by Mohr Davidow -
SAN FRANCISCO - July 13, 2010 - hi5, one of the world's most popular social entertainment sites, has closed a new round of venture capital financing of over $14 million. The company's second round of institutional venture financing was led by Crosslink Capital. Jim Feuille, General Partner at Crosslink, will join the hi5 board of directors.
"hi5 is among the companies leading and defining the rapidly emerging social entertainment category, and this round will enable us to fully capitalize on what is already a massive market opportunity," said Bill Gossman, CEO of hi5. "Crosslink has been at the forefront of this revolution with investments in Pandora and Like.com as well as successful public market experience with Omniture and Ancestry.com, so we are thrilled to have Jim's expertise joining the company."
The financing follows an initial venture round of $20 million in July 2007, bringing the total venture capital raised to just over $34 million. The previous round was led by Mohr Davidow, which also participated in the current financing. The new funding will accelerate hi5's expansion into social gaming and virtual goods, which it initiated in December 2008 with the launch of the hi5 Coins virtual currency and virtual gifts store, the hi5 Games channel in February 2009, and hi5 Stars animated avatars in October 2009.
"The social entertainment category is experiencing explosive growth, and hi5 has the global audience, strategic vision and seasoned management team to be a significant long-term leader in this market," said Jim Feuille, General Partner at Crosslink. Feuille serves on the board of Pandora, and played an important role in the transformation of its massive entertainment site. "hi5's unique combination of social game mechanics, ownership of a social graph and a third-party game platform positions the company well for success."
About Crosslink Capital
Founded in 1989, Crosslink Capital is a leading multi-stage technology venture capital and growth equity firm with over $1.4 billion in capital under management. Crosslink was among the first investment firms in the U.S. to integrate public and private technology investing. This strategy allows Crosslink to partner with its portfolio companies on a long-term basis. With more than 20 years behind it, Crosslink Capital has invested in over 90 private equity portfolio companies, including such industry leaders as Ancestry.com (Nasdaq: ACOM), Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX), BlueArc, Magma Design Automation (Nasdaq: LAVA), Miller Heiman, Pandora and Yipes (acquired by Reliance Communications). For more information on Crosslink, visit http://www.crosslinkcapital.com.
About hi5
Founded in 2003, hi5 today is among the top 20 largest web sites in the world and the leading destination site focused on social entertainment and gaming. Combining a robust social platform with premium content and game mechanics, hi5 delivers a fun, expressive, and interactive entertainment experience to millions of users around the world. Available in over 50 languages, the site features localized games, virtual goods and other content that is monetized through hi5 Coins, a global virtual currency supporting over 60 payment methods and 30 currencies worldwide. For more information on hi5, visit http://www.hi5networks.com.
Here are some of the latest news and highlights in the social gaming industry that took place this week:
In an article from MSNBC, reporter Rick Aristotle Munarriz says that "social gaming has become the hottest accessory to hit Hollywood since Yorkshire terrier puppies and house-arrest ankle bracelets." It's proven to be true with Viacom's MTV Networks acquiring game developer Social Express. Founded by a pair of former Zynga employees, Social Express expects to release its first casual games for Viacom as soon as this quarter. The deal comes just a week after Disney acquired Tapulous, the company behind Tap Tap Revenge and other rhythmic games.
Playdom, one of our partners here at hi5, continued their ongoing stream of acquisitions with the purchase of Metaplace, a privately held designer of social games, founded in 2006 and based in San Diego. According to David Sobeski, Playdom's chief technology officer, "We expect that the Metaplace social game engine will form a key part of our unified back-end technology platform for Playdom's games going forward."
Throughout the week, there has been a lot of buzz around Yahoo's pending partnership launch with Offerpal Media. Now official, Offerpal Media will power alternative payments for social games within Yahoo's homepage, MyYahoo, Yahoo's Toolbar and Yahoo Pulse. The platform will allow gamers to choose free trials, discounts, promotions or other offers from branded advertisers in exchange for more game play and opportunities.
Also, just a reminder that hi5 is sponsoring Casual Connect Seattle this year, held July 20-22. We invite you to visit our booth #22 at the conference, located in the entrance area of Benaroya Hall on the first floor. Please feel free to swing by and say hello, or contact us to coordinate a time to meet.
In an article from MSNBC, reporter Rick Aristotle Munarriz says that "social gaming has become the hottest accessory to hit Hollywood since Yorkshire terrier puppies and house-arrest ankle bracelets." It's proven to be true with Viacom's MTV Networks acquiring game developer Social Express. Founded by a pair of former Zynga employees, Social Express expects to release its first casual games for Viacom as soon as this quarter. The deal comes just a week after Disney acquired Tapulous, the company behind Tap Tap Revenge and other rhythmic games.Playdom, one of our partners here at hi5, continued their ongoing stream of acquisitions with the purchase of Metaplace, a privately held designer of social games, founded in 2006 and based in San Diego. According to David Sobeski, Playdom's chief technology officer, "We expect that the Metaplace social game engine will form a key part of our unified back-end technology platform for Playdom's games going forward."
Throughout the week, there has been a lot of buzz around Yahoo's pending partnership launch with Offerpal Media. Now official, Offerpal Media will power alternative payments for social games within Yahoo's homepage, MyYahoo, Yahoo's Toolbar and Yahoo Pulse. The platform will allow gamers to choose free trials, discounts, promotions or other offers from branded advertisers in exchange for more game play and opportunities.Also, just a reminder that hi5 is sponsoring Casual Connect Seattle this year, held July 20-22. We invite you to visit our booth #22 at the conference, located in the entrance area of Benaroya Hall on the first floor. Please feel free to swing by and say hello, or contact us to coordinate a time to meet.
In a meeting with Chris Nuttall of the Financial Times, hi5 president and CTO Alex St. John discussed the evolution and current competitive landscape of the social games industry. As both leading social networks and game developers look to rise above the noise and become the market leader, they will face some big challenges. Alex discussed how commerce will play a significant role in the potential success of social game companies, and was quoted as saying: "The Zynga and Facebook guys are just scratching the most naive edge of online commerce models. The commerce platform that I built at WildTangent and that Big Six has built are decades ahead in sophistication and capability. It's rolling out now and we're going to show the social media industry what it means to really make money from these games."
Additionally, Alex and Chris discussed why hi5 is uniquely positioned to become the leading social gaming platform, and Chris sums up this point best here: "Facebook will make missteps because it wants to be a general-purpose social network and will not focus properly on gaming, leaving it to more specialised companies like his own Hi5 to produce winning models."
Read the full article: http://blogs.ft.com/techblog/2010/07/facebook-will-fail-at-social-gaming-hi5/
Here are some of the latest news and highlights in the social gaming industry that took place this week:
On Tuesday, hi5 team members attended the first-ever Social Developer Summit, hosted
by mediabistro.com and All Facebook founder Nick O'Neill. A wide variety of topics were covered at the event, including scaling social analytics, optimizing the monetization funnel, social in the mobile market, social advertising, and app engagement. Jake Mintz of Bump, an iPhone app that has received over 12.5 million downloads and allows users to exchange contact information by physically 'bumping' their phones, discussed how social interactions drove the downloads of the application, particularly around the World Cup. The main takeaways from their experience in developing a mobile social game was ensuring that the experience was frictionless, and including instant gratification that incentivizes users to share. During the session on optimizing conversion, RockYou's CTO Jia Shen shared the most relevant game mechanics to track that will create a more efficient purchase funnel. According to the Social Times, on average 3-5% of social game players pay with a high end on the 10-15% for high niche social games. To optimize this conversion, Shen instructed developers to design perceived value and then limit access to value, using 'time' as a key element to moderate. Creating this demand will help maximize the percentage of paying users because they will see a social game as valuable. Stay tuned for an more in-depth overview of the highlights and our key takeaways from this event.
As Zynga's social game Ponzi Inc. announced that they would close shop on Facebook,
Gamezebo's Joel Brodie wrote an interesting piece about why he anticipates more social games to start closing shop on Facebook. He stated the following reasons: (1) Until recenetly, it has been relatively easy to create a social game, acquire users for free virally on Facebook, and generate revenue from microtransactions. Facebook has changed the rules on the ability to use notifications on their platform to spread games virally, so there is no more free lunch and developers will have to pay for marketing their games, decreasing their margins of profitability. (2) Consolidation will be another primary reason that independent developers will have an increasingly difficult time driving success for their games on Facebook. Big players such as Zynga, Playdom, and EA will likely purchase the smaller competition, who would otherwise go out of business in the next year anyway, and either provide needed marketing support or cancel their games. To read the full article, visit Gamezebo.com.
The Walt Disney Company announced the acquisition of Tapulous, a start-up company that makes music-based games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The acquisition signals Disney's further commitment into the mobile and social game industry. In June, Disney's Steamboat Ventures invested in Playdom, one of the industry's leading social game developers and one of our partners here at hi5.
Social analytics company Kontagent confirmed that they had raised an additional $4.5 million in a round led by Altos Ventures and Maverick Capital, with participation from Larry Braitman, co-founder of FlyCast and Adify. Kontagent is one of the few companies that offers in-depth analytics for Facebook applications, working much as a web tool like Google Analytics would, but with some important additions like the ability to track the contributions of individual users. The company plans to use this additional capital to build out sales and marketing capacities as well as for research and development.
As we announced earlier this week, hi5 is sponsoring Casual Connect Seattle this year, held July 20-22. We invite you to visit our booth #22 at the conference, located in the entrance area of Benaroya Hall on the first floor. Please feel free to swing by and say hello, or contact us to coordinate a time to meet.
On Tuesday, hi5 team members attended the first-ever Social Developer Summit, hostedby mediabistro.com and All Facebook founder Nick O'Neill. A wide variety of topics were covered at the event, including scaling social analytics, optimizing the monetization funnel, social in the mobile market, social advertising, and app engagement. Jake Mintz of Bump, an iPhone app that has received over 12.5 million downloads and allows users to exchange contact information by physically 'bumping' their phones, discussed how social interactions drove the downloads of the application, particularly around the World Cup. The main takeaways from their experience in developing a mobile social game was ensuring that the experience was frictionless, and including instant gratification that incentivizes users to share. During the session on optimizing conversion, RockYou's CTO Jia Shen shared the most relevant game mechanics to track that will create a more efficient purchase funnel. According to the Social Times, on average 3-5% of social game players pay with a high end on the 10-15% for high niche social games. To optimize this conversion, Shen instructed developers to design perceived value and then limit access to value, using 'time' as a key element to moderate. Creating this demand will help maximize the percentage of paying users because they will see a social game as valuable. Stay tuned for an more in-depth overview of the highlights and our key takeaways from this event.
As Zynga's social game Ponzi Inc. announced that they would close shop on Facebook,
Gamezebo's Joel Brodie wrote an interesting piece about why he anticipates more social games to start closing shop on Facebook. He stated the following reasons: (1) Until recenetly, it has been relatively easy to create a social game, acquire users for free virally on Facebook, and generate revenue from microtransactions. Facebook has changed the rules on the ability to use notifications on their platform to spread games virally, so there is no more free lunch and developers will have to pay for marketing their games, decreasing their margins of profitability. (2) Consolidation will be another primary reason that independent developers will have an increasingly difficult time driving success for their games on Facebook. Big players such as Zynga, Playdom, and EA will likely purchase the smaller competition, who would otherwise go out of business in the next year anyway, and either provide needed marketing support or cancel their games. To read the full article, visit Gamezebo.com.The Walt Disney Company announced the acquisition of Tapulous, a start-up company that makes music-based games for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The acquisition signals Disney's further commitment into the mobile and social game industry. In June, Disney's Steamboat Ventures invested in Playdom, one of the industry's leading social game developers and one of our partners here at hi5.Social analytics company Kontagent confirmed that they had raised an additional $4.5 million in a round led by Altos Ventures and Maverick Capital, with participation from Larry Braitman, co-founder of FlyCast and Adify. Kontagent is one of the few companies that offers in-depth analytics for Facebook applications, working much as a web tool like Google Analytics would, but with some important additions like the ability to track the contributions of individual users. The company plans to use this additional capital to build out sales and marketing capacities as well as for research and development.
As we announced earlier this week, hi5 is sponsoring Casual Connect Seattle this year, held July 20-22. We invite you to visit our booth #22 at the conference, located in the entrance area of Benaroya Hall on the first floor. Please feel free to swing by and say hello, or contact us to coordinate a time to meet.
This year we're a proud sponsor of Casual Connect Seattle, held July 20-22. Produced by the Casual Games Association, Casual Connect brings together the most talented and knowledgeable experts in the casual gaming field to further the casual games industry with the best of networking and learning. Over 2,000 developers, publishers, and other game industry professionals are expected to attend this year's event.Members of the hi5 team will be in attendance at Casual Connect Seattle, and available to discuss partnership opportunities with game developers. Come visit us our booth #22 at the conference, located in the entrance area of Benaroya Hall on the first floor.
Please feel free to swing by and say hello, or email us at http://developer.hi5.com/php/contact.php to coordinate a time to meet. We hope to see you there!
Here is a summary of the latest news and
highlights in the social gaming industry that
took place this
week:
The week kicked off with an announcement from
Social Gaming Network (SGN), game publishers for iOS devices like iPhone and
iPad as well as the PC. SGN announced that they had raised $2 million from
Tomorrow Ventures and Xing founder Lars Hinrichs. While their focus has
primarily been on iOS devices, founder and executive chairman Shervin Pishevar
says SGN plans to start releasing titles for Android
smartphones.
Boston-based MocoSpace announced the launch of a mobile, browser-based social games platform. The company said it is focusing on games on mobile browsers so that it can reach the widest possible audiences. Rivals include MySpace Mobile, Facebook, Aurora Feint, Ngcomo, Scoreloop, and PapayaMobile.
It's been a busy week for Playdom, one of the industry's leading social game developers and one of our partners here at hi5. On Tuesday, Playdom closed $33 million in a third round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures, and New World Ventures (Playdom has raised $76 million to date). This morning, Playdom announced the acquisition of Hive7.com, a Facebook developer whose biggest game is Knighthood.
According to a new study from Frank N. Magid Associates, American consumers spent $168
million on mobile virtual
goods in the last year, and they're expected to do so again in the year ahead.
Per the report, over 70 million Americans own smartphones and 45% of those
owners play games, while 16% of them are buying in-game goods. The average
amount spent? $41 per person! Magid Advisors president Mike Vorhaus weighed in
on the results of the study and said, "Everybody knows free-to-play social
gaming models on PC platforms have been making a killing but mobile virtual
goods aren't as well understood. With almost 20 percent of smartphone gamers
already making purchases, there's a lot of room for the market to keep taking
off as smartphones continue to increase in popularity."
Wednesday was another big day for funding announcements as well - both HeyZap and PapayaMobile announced funding rounds. Online gaming platform HeyZap announced the closing of a $3 million round of venture funding led by Union Square Ventures, joined by Naval Ravikant and Chris Dixon for Founder Collective. The company's aim is to make social games more like YouTube videos, so that publishers can embed them on any web page. HeyZap stated that they will be using the funds to grow the company over the next few weeks. Beijing-based PapayaMobile raised $4 million for the launch of its new mobile social networking platform on Android devices. The platform has attracted 3.5 million global users in the past year by launching its own social games on mobile phones. Now it's opening up the platform to third-party developers who can integrate the social platform into their own games.
million on mobile virtual
goods in the last year, and they're expected to do so again in the year ahead.
Per the report, over 70 million Americans own smartphones and 45% of those
owners play games, while 16% of them are buying in-game goods. The average
amount spent? $41 per person! Magid Advisors president Mike Vorhaus weighed in
on the results of the study and said, "Everybody knows free-to-play social
gaming models on PC platforms have been making a killing but mobile virtual
goods aren't as well understood. With almost 20 percent of smartphone gamers
already making purchases, there's a lot of room for the market to keep taking
off as smartphones continue to increase in popularity."Wednesday was another big day for funding announcements as well - both HeyZap and PapayaMobile announced funding rounds. Online gaming platform HeyZap announced the closing of a $3 million round of venture funding led by Union Square Ventures, joined by Naval Ravikant and Chris Dixon for Founder Collective. The company's aim is to make social games more like YouTube videos, so that publishers can embed them on any web page. HeyZap stated that they will be using the funds to grow the company over the next few weeks. Beijing-based PapayaMobile raised $4 million for the launch of its new mobile social networking platform on Android devices. The platform has attracted 3.5 million global users in the past year by launching its own social games on mobile phones. Now it's opening up the platform to third-party developers who can integrate the social platform into their own games.
Boston-based MocoSpace announced the launch of a mobile, browser-based social games platform. The company said it is focusing on games on mobile browsers so that it can reach the widest possible audiences. Rivals include MySpace Mobile, Facebook, Aurora Feint, Ngcomo, Scoreloop, and PapayaMobile.
It's been a busy week for Playdom, one of the industry's leading social game developers and one of our partners here at hi5. On Tuesday, Playdom closed $33 million in a third round of funding from Bessemer Venture Partners, Steamboat Ventures, and New World Ventures (Playdom has raised $76 million to date). This morning, Playdom announced the acquisition of Hive7.com, a Facebook developer whose biggest game is Knighthood.
Coming up next week, we'll be attending the
first-ever Social
Developer Summit, hosted by mediabistro.com and All Facebook founder Nick
O'Neill. We anticipate that it will be an interesting event for developers,
focused on social news, games, discovery, search, and other solutions. Notable
speakers include Jason Oberfest of ngmoco:), Luke Rajlich of Zynga's Farmville,
John Smart of Zoosk, Jia Shen of Rock You, Arin Sarkissian of Digg, and Immad
Akhund of HeyZap. If you're interested in meeting with us at the event, please
drop us a
line.
Several hi5 employees were at the E3 Expo this week. This year, a focus on new devices and game sequels have taken center stage at E3. On Monday at a Cirque du Soleil-themed event, Microsoft announced that their camera-based motion-control product, formerly known as Project Natal, is now called Kinect and is expected to release in time for the holidays this year. It's also rumored that Kinect will be bundled with a new slimline model of the Xbox 360. Kinect uses facial and voice recognition functionality to control actions in-game. Microsoft has also confirmed Disney as an official partner on the project, and hinted that the new Star Wars game will use the motion-sensing system. Additionally, other original sports and casual games from will launch later this year and utilize Kinect.
Sony unveiled a new controller for their console as well, the PlayStation Move, which is a wand that allows the player's movements to be tracked by a camera (PlayStation Eye) connected to the console. Essentially, it's Sony's answer to the Microsoft Kinect system and Nintendo's motion-sensitive Wii remote.
On Tuesday, Nintendo unveiled the 3DS, the first-ever portable 3D gaming system. Additionally, Nintendo has lined up several strong partners to provide content for the gaming system, including EA, Activision, Sega, Ubisoft, Konami and Capcom. Some of the franchises that will be featured on the device in 3D include Madden, FIFA Soccer, The Sims 3, Resident Evil, Batman, and Assassin's Creed.
Fans have been excited by the announcement of upcoming sequels to some highly popular franchises. At a grand event put on by Activision, which included performances by Jane's Addition, Eminem, Usher, and Rihanna, they announced DJ Hero 2, Tony Hawk: SHRED, Guitar Hero: Warrior of Rock, and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Ubisoft announced the upcoming launch of Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, the sequel to the hit title Assassin's Creed II.
Overall, the focus of E3 has been primarily on console-based gaming -- as expected for this event based on its history. Companies in the social gaming sector were largely absent from the show. As the mass market for games shifts towards more online, casual and social gaming, it will be interesting to see if this shift is reflected in the companies featuring exhibits and product announcements at future E3 Events.