PopCap Relaunches Bejeweled for iPhone, Goes FreemiumBejeweled is one of the most popular casual games ever; it's sold more than 50 million copies with more than 500 million downloads on all platforms. The game started out as a Flash game for browsers in 2001, and quickly spread to a wide variety of platforms. Now PopCap is reinventing Bejeweled for the iPhone, and in the process foreshadowing what may happen with other games.
PopCap Games, the worldwide leader in casual games, today announced the launch of an all-new iPhone adaptation of Bejeweled as well as a standalone, freemium edition of Bejeweled Blitz for iPhone. The rollout of these titles initiates a new strategic direction for PopCap’s blockbuster puzzle game franchise on mobile platforms.
With the launch of these new iterations of Bejeweled, PopCap will retire Bejeweled 2 for iPhone, making way for the next generation of the franchise with continuously evolving features and content. This is more in line with the way mobile games have been selling in the App Store; publishers continually update the games and release new content, rather than waiting for a long time and then releasing a new version of the game. Players can visit the Apple App Store to download the all-new Bejeweled for US$0.99. The standalone, freemium edition of Bejeweled Blitz is available at no cost. Both games will be rolling out worldwide in different geographies throughout the day today.
“With nearly 40 million mobile units sold over the past eight years, Bejeweled is the second best-selling mobile game of all time, behind only Tetris,” noted Giordano Bruno Contestabile, Bejeweled franchise business director at PopCap Games. “As we strive to reach virtually everyone with a mobile communications device, PopCap will continue to make games that are even more accessible to that ever-expanding global audience. We’re taking a critical step toward this goal with the introduction of these new Bejeweled titles that will enhance our offerings on the iPhone for years to come.”
“Mobile customers expect new content and regular updates,” said Contestabile in a conversation with IndustryGamers. “Console games are about launching and making a big bang, while Facebook and mobile games are a living product.”
One of the key factors in how a publisher decides to allocate resources for game development is the return on that investment of resources. With that in mind, how do freemium games on a mobile or social platform compare to investing in a platform like an Xbox 360 or PS3? Contestabile made it clear: “I think online and mobile games have a bigger long-term potential than games in a box.” Games in a box have another disadvantage: They are much harder to modify or update. With live games on a mobile or social platform you can be more flexible and change direction. “The risk is much lower for a game that you can evolve,” said Contestabile.
Bejeweled Blitz is built to never force customers to pay in order to play. But you can buy coins or earn them, buy different things inside the game such as boosts, rare gems, and even buy a “spin” to win coins. Importantly, the mobile game connects to the Facebook version, so you can keep your achievements and leaderboard positions against your friends as you compete.
“We'd like to connect to consoles, but we'll have to wait until the next generation of consoles. The current consoles aren't open enough for sharing the way we can between Facebook and mobile versions,” noted Contestabile. Given the popularity of Facebook and other social networks, it seems to be a logical prediction that the next generation of consoles will be more open to social networking in various forms.
Yes, this is a test for how other PopCap games may be re-imagined in the future. But why has PopCap chosen to focus on the freemium model? The answer is simple, according to Contestabile. “With a free-to-play game you can get 10 times to 15 times the number of players as a paid game. With a freemium model we have a chance to get ten times the number of players to try our games.”
The lesson of PopCap's remake of Bejeweled is that the freemium model is affecting the entire gaming industry, not just mobile and social games. The pressure is already upon console makers to incorporate social networking into the next-generation platforms, and the more they make something like Facebook part of the platform, the more users will expect the kind of Facebook games they're used to already - which means games that connect to their friends across platforms, and games that are free to play. Once you open the door to freemium games, it's going to affect the perception of the value of all games. It will be a little harder to spend $60 on a game unless you're very sure it's worth it, when you have lots of free alternatives for your time.
