Hasta La Gadget!

We’ve heard about the Angry Birds movie before, but Rovio has just announced today that the film will be released on July 1, 2016 and will be distributed by Sony, which will be available worldwide. Rovio says that “several major studios pursued the global film rights” to the movie, but Sony ended up being the winner.

The movie will be completely developed, produced, and financed by Rovio, with John Cohen and David Maisel hopping on board to help out. Cohen is best known for his role as producer for Universal’s Despicable Me, and Maisel is the former Marvel Studios chairman and executive producer for the Iron Man series, as well as The Incredible Hulk, Thor, and Captain America.

Overall, Cohen isn’t a huge name in the movie business, other than his role in Despicable Me, but he did have an executive role in several animated movies, including two Ice Age films and the 2007 remake of Alvin and the Chipmunks. He also served as vice president of production at Twentieth Century Fox Animation, and he also contributed to Horton Hears a Who and Robots, the former of which is a classic Dr. Seuss children’s book.

This will mark the first time that Angry Birds has ventured out into the movie entertainment business. The series recently scored its own animated web show, and has passed out merchandise licensing to several companies to make T-shirts and even plush toys of popular Angry Birds characters. Needless to say, the movie is expected to bring in a lot of sales.

The Angry Birds film first came to light back in 2011 when Maisel joined Rovio, which hinted to the possibility that Rovio was in the act of acquiring movie-focused talent. As for the plot of the movie, we’re left without any details and how the levels of Angry Birds will tie into a full-length film exactly, but Rovio said it will retain “full creative control” over the project by working outside the traditional studio system.

SOURCE: Rovio

Angry Birds movie set for 2016 debut by Sony is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The one caveat to mobile gaming is that a lot of smartphone games don’t come with the ability to save your progress across multiple devices, leaving gamers to start over on a game if they end up buying a new tablet. However, Rovio looks to solve that issue in Angry Birds with a new feature called Account.

The new feature basically allows gamers to create an Account and save game progress to the cloud, with the ability to resume gameplay on another device that has the same game installed. It’s a feature that most games should have in this day and age, but many mobile games sadly don’t come with cloud support, so those who do include it in their games are a step ahead of the crowd.

Currently, Rovio Account is only available in the company’s new The Croods game, as well as in the classic Angry Birds title on iOS in Finland and Poland. Of course, Rovio will gradually be rolling this new feature out in more regions around the world, as well as introduce more features, but the company hasn’t given a timeline on that yet.

As for what this move does for Rovio, it could be a good business move for the mobile game developer, as it makes it easier to converse with users when they have a dedicated Rovio account. Plus, it’ll make it easier to begin playing new games when the company releases new titles or sequels in the future.

[via Android Community]

Rovio Account is your cross-platform solution to Angry Birds is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Gameloft has been teasing its Iron Man 3 game for a few weeks now by releasing a couple of trailers showing off some of the new features. However, the game is now available for your disposal, and it comes just one week before the theatrical release of the movie with the same name, which is set for May 3.

The game features an endless-runner aspect, where you fly through the sky defeating various enemies while trying not to get yourself killed. You’ll take on four villains from the Iron Man comic book series, including Crimson Dynamo, Ezekiel Stane, Living Laser, and M.O.D.O.K., all of which will provide a bit of challenge in order to get to the next round.

Your character (Tony Stark) will also be responsible for running Stark Industries and you’ll be able to research and develop up to 18 Iron Man suits that you can wear and fly around in. The game also offers three different locations to keep you occupied, which include Malibu Shores, New York City, and China.

The game is free and is available now for both iOS and Android, but you’ll also be able to spend money on weapon upgrades, as well as special tricks and “HP”. These come in the form of in-app purchases, so while the game is free, you’ll ultimately have to pay money if you want to get through the game quicker.

Iron Man 3 mobile game capitalizes on pre-movie hype is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Google Glass comes with a MyGlass companion app for Android that allows the pair of smart glasses to do a range of cool and nifty things. However, it’s been discovered that deep down inside the app lies a few hints at what’s to come for the Android platform, most notably the possibility of an all-out multiplayer gaming service for Android.

According to Android Police, who tore apart the APK file of the MyGlass app, a feature list of an unnamed gaming service was found buried deep in the code, and it mentions things like multiplayer support, in-game chat, lobbies, leaderboards, and achievements — essentially an extensive multiplayer service with “just about every gaming feature you could possibly imagine.”

It’s not known whether or not the list was put there on purpose to build hype or if it was done entirely by accident. It’s certainly not common for Google to include needless things in an app, including this MyGlass app which includes code to Google Play games, which Google Glass can’t take advantage of.

Essentially, this would be the equivalent to Apple’s Game Center service on iOS, which isn’t all that great anyway, but if Google could create their own gaming service for Android and include some killer features, it could look much more attractive than iOS’s gaming offerings. We could see something from Google as early as their I/O conference later next month, but we’ll have to wait and see.

[via Android Police]

MyGlass Android app hints at possible multiplayer gaming service is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple only recently began promoting certain apps and games in the iTunes App Store, by delivering an “App of the Week” and chopping off the price tag. However, they don’t often highlight popular apps or games all that much, but this week, they’re highlighting Fruit Ninja, a classic mobile game of fruit-chopping proportions.

Every Thursday, Apple picks a new App of the Week, and the next one to step up onto the show bail is Fruit Ninja. Apple just began promoting the app as App of the Week just a few minutes ago, according to our watches, and both the iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad versions are already discounted and will cost you nothing if you don’t already own the game.

This isn’t the first time that the game has seen its priced chopped down, although it is just the second time. Developer Halfbrick Studios discounted the app for the first time ever back in December for a holiday sale. The app was free, alongside other hot games like Age of Zombies, Blast Off, and Monster Dash.

Fruit Ninja has been available for roughly two-and-a-half years, and it’s arguably Halfbrick Studio’s best and most popular game, with Jetpack Joyride being a close second. Fruit Ninja has accumulated over 300 million downloads across all platforms so far, and that number will undoubtedly continue to grow over the next week.

Fruit Ninja is Apple’s App of the Week, free for a limited time is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.