Tag: mobile gaming

The popular Ingress location based game is opening itself up to Apple smartphone players.

Niantic Labs from Google has managed to produce an exceptionally popular augmented reality mobile gaming experience for Android smartphone users, but the next step is going to be a launch for users of iPhones, as well.

This will allow the Apple device users to enjoy the same experience that uses geolocation technology.

This augmented reality mobile gaming opportunity begins as a location based MMO, which uses positioning in the real world in order to impact the various events that are going on within the game. From there it expands into a type of broad scale virtual reality event that continues to grow the more the Ingress players continue to unravel its mysteries.

As a part of the celebration of this growing augmented reality mobile gaming experience, Niantic Labs has gone a step further.

Niantic Labs has now released a video series that is made up of two parts in the form of a retrospective. The purpose is to show the creation of the geolocation game experience and to document the way that the story has progressed until this point. The name of the official documentary that has been released is “Ingress Report: Ingress Year One.”

The videos are both interesting and informative, even to those who have never before played the Ingress game. It is a fascinating way to catch the viewer up with the latest in this experience which has become an event unto itself.

This will be certain to attract iPhone users who are looking forward to being able to take on the game for themselves once it is released in a format that is compatible with their own devices. Rumor has it that this will not be long off and that the release for this version.

That said, this remains big news in the augmented reality mobile gaming world, as Google had previously made the experience available only to users of devices based on its own Android operating system. However, the more players there are of the game, the better it gets. Therefore, this could lead to a considerable influx of players that could greatly improve this already highly enjoyed game.

Alibaba sees promise in the mobile space

Alibaba, China’s largest retail organization akin to eBay and Amazon, has announced that it plans to break into the world of mobile games. China has become one of the most promising markets for mobile gaming, partly due to the rapid growth of smartphone and tablet ownership. Alibaba has been seeing a major rise in the potential of the mobile space and is not keen to be left behind by its competitors.

Tencent and Alibaba may clash on mobile games

Alibaba is currently working to develop its own mobile gaming platform. This move likely comes as a response to Tencent’s efforts to make its gratuitously popular WeChat application into a gaming platform. Tencent currently boasts of the strongest presence in China’s mobile sector. The WeChat application has more than 570 million downloads and Tencent itself is behind many of the country’s most popular mobile games. Alibaba is keen to break into the mobile space more aggressively and break the monopoly that Tencent is building.

Developers may find Alibaba’s platform attractive

The organization is providing access to its mobile gaming platform to developers for free this year. This initiative aims to attract game developers to the platform and provide them with the resources they need to develop engaging mobile games that will be associated with Alibaba in the future. The revenue that these games produce will be split, with 70% of the revenue going to developers and 20% going to Alibaba. Approximately 10% of the revenue generated by these mobile games will be donated to rural education initiatives.

Games to be marketed and distributed through Taobao

Alibaba has also committed itself to fully supporting the mobile games that are developed for its platform. The organization will market and distribute these games through its Taobao e-commerce division, which boasts of 700 million users. This will provide developers with a great deal of exposure and help them reach a larger audience that they may not have had access to in the past.