Casual Games Reach iPhone With PopCap’s Bejeweled
Posted on July 30, 2007 - Filed Under HandHeld, Industry News, iPhone |
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For the folks in the United States, we’ve had iPhones for about a month now, but we’ve not had any real new advancements since the launch. We’re still waiting to see how third parties will develop products for the iPhone.
That time has arrived because PopCap Games has announced Bejeweled for the iPhone! Today, they’ve not only announced the game on the mobile phone, but they’ve released it… for free!
You can now look forward to casual gaming using your iPhone. I’m sure this will be the start to a long future of casual games for the mobile phone. They’ve established the ground rules for developing for the phone quickly so would it be surprising to see titles like Zuma arrive next?
Bejeweled utilizes Safari and the “web 2.0 capabilities” of the browser to play the game in the browser as if it was installed on your system. This is how Apple had intended it and so it will be (for now at least). You don’t download anything, you just go out and play.
Although I don’t have an iPhone I’d love to see how well it plays with your fingers on the touch-screen. I’m sure its amazing.
Here is the press release, and a few additional screenshots.
SEATTLE, Washington – July 30, 2007 — PopCap Games, the leading developer and publisher of casual games, today announced that it has launched a custom version of its flagship game Bejeweled® for the Safari® Web browser on Apple Inc.’s new iPhone® and is making it available at no cost to iPhone owners. Beginning today, iPhone users can log on to www.popcap.com via the iPhone’s Web browser and play the iPhone-specific version of the original match-3 puzzler Bejeweled for free. This customized version of Bejeweled leverages the Web 2.0 capabilities of Safari and the wireless capabilities of the iPhone, and has been optimized to take advantage of the iPhone’s unique display and input controls. PopCap developed the Safari-based version of Bejeweled in partnership with Polish developer Arkadiusz Mlynarczyk, one of the first programmers to take advantage of the Apple iPhone’s capabilities for video gaming purposes.
“We’re excited to be providing the most popular puzzle game of the 21st century to users of the most advanced mobile device yet created,” said Andrew Stein, Director of Mobile Platforms at PopCap. “We wanted to give the hundreds of thousands of iPhone users a fun, fast gaming fix – and at no cost, no less.”
PopCap’s leadership role in the mobile gaming sector is reflected in several recent milestones, including the hiring of key mobile industry executives, establishment of direct partnerships with wireless carriers, and the recent launch of Chuzzle™ Mobile, the first mobile game that PopCap has developed and distributed directly. Bejeweled and Zuma™, two of PopCap’s most popular games, have also been runaway successes on Video iPods since their introduction on those devices last year.
About PopCap
PopCap Games (www.popcap.com) is the leading multi-platform provider of “casual games” — fun, easy-to-learn, captivating 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 120 people in Seattle, San Francisco, Chicago, Vancouver, B.C. and Dublin. Its games have been downloaded more than 350 million times by consumers worldwide, and its flagship title, Bejeweled, has sold more than 10 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 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, mobile operators and developers, and game device manufacturers.
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The problem is: it reloads everytime you leave safari.