Hasta La Gadget!

Zynga has announced that it will no longer be requiring people to log into their Facebook accounts when entering its site. Zynga wants to distance itself from Facebook in order to become a more independent game developer. You are now able to access your favorite games, like Farmville, Chefville, Draw Sometihng, and more via a stand-alone Zynga account.

Of course, you can still sign in with your Facebook account if you want. Zynga will keep your games’ progress as well as your Zynga friends list in its database. While Zynga wants to distance itself from Facebook, it doesn’t want to burn that bridge entirely. It relies on Facebook for a huge chunk of its traffic, even though it already has a dedicated fan base of over 3 million people.

Along with removing the Facebook login requirement, Zynga plans on implementing a feature next week that will allow players to find fellow gamers through their Gmail or Yahoo contacts list. Zynga will also be implementing its own payment system for its games, instead of relying on Facebook for its transactions. Before, people would be able to purchase premium content on Zynga through Facebook, however Facebook would take a 30% cut from all transactions.

Facebook isn’t too happy about the change, however both companies knew that this move was inevitable. For people who still connect to Zynga via their Facebook accounts, they will only be find fellow gamers that they have previously interacted with. They will no longer be able to see if one of their Facebook friends has just started playing a Zynga game. This change will most definitely hurt Zynga’s transition, but is no way a deal breaker for the game developer.

[via Zynga]

Zynga distances itself from Facebook is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Ryan Seacrest, known as the host of American Idol and also as a radio host for New York’s Z100, leaked out what appears to be a sequel to the ever popular social game, Draw Something. Seacrest wrote in a tweet, “I somehow convinced them to give me #DrawSomething2 first… this may be the best Mariah & Randy have ever looked.” Alongside the tweet, he posted an image of a very well drawn picture of the American Idol judges.

After Seacrest tweeted the game, Dan Porter, the CEO of OMGPOP (the original owner of the game) and Zynga VP, replied saying, “Thanks! So excited to confirm #DrawSomething2 is coming w/ new ways to draw & connect.” Zynga owns the rights to OMGPOP and Draw Something after buying the company out for $210 million last year. The drawing game became an instant mobile success attracting 14 million daily users and 50 million downloads within 2 months.

Draw Something’s fame began dramatically decreasing, seeing its user base drop about 7 million 3 months after it was released in various app stores. Many users began getting bored of the game after the same words would show up time and time again, and advertisements would come and disrupt game play. Zynga hopes that by launching a new refresh to the game, it will be able to draw in its original user base, and hopefully keep them this time around.

It’s speculated that Ryan Seacrest and his Draw Something 2 tweet may have some sort of tie to a new show he will be producing. The new show will be based on a Draw Something and Pictionary. Zynga and Ryan Seacrest see great potential in a drawing-like competition, because teams will have to compete each other, and instead of having the biggest brains or fastest reactions, they will have to be superior artists in order to win. The show is said to be airing something this year. Will you jump back on the Draw Something bandwagon?

[via CNET]

Ryan Seacrest leaks Draw Something 2 on Twitter is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Dead Space 3 has been doing well in the market place. The game launched at the beginning of last month, and was the top selling game throughout February. The game sold around 605,000 copies in February, knocking Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 down to second place. Other games Dead Space 3 beat include: Crysis 3, NBA 2K13, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, Aliens: Colonial Marines 2013, Just Dance 4, Far Cry 3, Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time, and Madden NFL 13.

While Dead Space 3 has been seeing some good sales figures, the video game industry as a whole has been seeing negative results. The NPD Group stated that video game sales fell 25% in February down from last year. Video game hardware did even worse, falling 36% down from last year, and software fell around 27%. These figures make Dead Space 3′s, and the Dead Space franchise’s, future seem uncertain. EA’s President, Frank Gibeau, stated that Dead Space 3 had to sell at least 5 million copies in order for there to be a sequel.

This also brings up the tiff between EA and the website, VideoGamer. VideoGamer stated in the past that EA cancelled the Dead Space 4 sequel due to poor Dead Space 3 sales. It had gotten the news from their “trusted source”. EA’s Chief Operating Officer Peter Moore was quick to debunk the rumor, calling it a case of “Shoddy Journalism”. VideoGamer countered Moore’s response by saying that they trust their source and stand by their original statement.

Dead Space 3′s 600k sales figure for the month is a good number, especially in this economy, but it’s miles behind EA’s expectations. EA stated that Dead Space 2 sold over 2 million copies within only its first week of sales, so Dead Space 3′s sales figures may be disappointing to them. Gibeau may be reaching for the stars when he said that Dead Space 3 would have to sell at least 5 million copies. Dead Space 3′s sales may do well throughout March, however, since its Awakened DLC was released just a few days ago. The DLC, like the game itself, has been well-received by game reviewers all around, many saying that it was an amazing and must-have addition to the game.

[via GameSpot]

Dead Space 3 claims top spot in February game sales is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Crystal dynamic’s reboot of Tomb Raider has become a big hit in the gaming industry, receiving top marks and rave reviews from game sites all around the web. The game has been praised for its stunning graphics, simple game play, riveting story, and convincing protagonist. While the game is already great, NVIDIA has found a way to make the game even more so. It has released the GeForce 314.21 drivers that will dramatically improve your Tomb Raider gameplay.

NVIDIA had planned on releasing its GeForce GTX Driver support for Tomb Raider during Day 1 of the game’s launch, however the company didn’t receive the game on time to do so. It’s better late than never, and NVIDIA graphics card owners are still grateful that NVIDIA followed through with its support. The company promises that its new 314.21 drivers will improve game performance by about 45%-60%.

The company measured the performance boost on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 at both the 1920×1080 and 2560×1600 resolutions. Many users have also stated that they’ve seen dramatic boosts in performances in their games. One user stated that his GTX 580 SLI received a 49% boost in performance, with frame rates in the game jumping from 50.3FPS to 74.9FPS on the Ultimate preset.

NVIDIA does really well in updating its drivers. Just a couple of weeks ago, the company launched its 314.14 beta drivers that’s optimized for a variety of games including StarCraft 2: Heart of the Swarm, SimCity, Hawken PhysX, and Resident Evil 6 (which will launch on the PC March 22nd). With its 314.21 updated drivers, the best GPU company is able to improve on one of the best games this year so far.

[via NVIDIA]

Tomb Raider gains NVIDIA GeForce GTX Driver support is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Julie Uhrman, the founder and CEO of Ouya, states that the gaming console will not support online multiplayer when it launches. She hopes that the the developers will be able to get the feature up and running by the end of the year. But fear not, local multiplayer will still be supported, so you’ll be able to play side-by-side with your friends (presumably up to 3 of them). Uhrman hopes to bring back the era of “back-couch” game play.

Ouya is the highly anticipated gaming console that runs on Android’s OS. The console is set to ship to its Kickstarter supporters on March 28th, and it’s goal is to take on its console gaming competitors, the PS3 and the Xbox 360. The system runs on an NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM and 8GB of internal storage. You are able to increase its storage size by connecting an external USB stick or hard drive to USB port on the system.

Uhrman says that the $99 system is a major draw for gaming developers, because unlike the PlayStation or the Xbox, it won’t cost developers a fortune to release a game for it. There are currently 481 games being developed for the console, and the developers are able to monetize their games by adding in-app purchases, subscriptions, or freemium features, something that Uhrman says is very difficult to achieve with traditional consoles.

Online multiplayer is set to launch by the end of the year, and will include leaderboards and achievements. The addition of online multiplayer will help make MMORPG’s more successful on the Android operating system. Along with online multiplayer, Uhrman says that they’re in the process of hooking up video streaming services, like Hulu or Netflix, onto the system so that the console can double as a replacement TV box (similar to Roku).

[via Forbes]

Ouya online multiplayer to launch by end of the year is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.