IndustryGamers - Informing the Games Industry

PopCap's Zuma Blitz Hits Facebook

Posted July 15, 2010 by M.H. Williams

Earlier this week, PopCap Senior Designer David Bishop revealed that the company was looking to move more of its classic franchises onto Facebook. Today, the company has announced the first new title in that strategy, Zuma Blitz. Zuma Blitz is the social version of PopCap’s second best-selling franchise with almost 20 million units sold to date. Players will be able see how their ball-blasting skills compare to their friends, in addition to other social features.

“We've received a ton of feedback regarding how players consume Bejeweled Blitz and other leading social games, and incorporated a number of those insights into this initial phase of Zuma Blitz, with more to come,” said PopCap COO Jason Kapalka. “Zuma is a very different game than Bejeweled, so the social adaptation has gone in different directions. Zuma is already a fast-paced arcade game, so the challenge was to make it feel approachable to players of all skill levels, even with just sixty seconds to play.”

PopCap intends to provide new additions to Zuma Blitz over time, with a slew of new features launching next month, including:

• Weekly tournaments and leaderboards

• New levels introduced regularly

• An “experience points” system to unlock additional features and capabilities

• A “Treasure Chest” virtual currency-based system for obtaining in-game power-ups

• New features such as time extenders, score multipliers and the “Hot Frog” speed mode

• Additional information on friends' in-game performance and status such as medals won, achievements earned at various point thresholds and experience level

“Once again PopCap is bringing a beloved game to the Facebook Platform and enhancing already successful game play with social features and functionality,” said Gareth Davis, Facebook Platform Manager. “Zuma Blitz will provide a fun and engaging way for our more than 400 million users to play with their friends on Facebook.”

Zuma Blitz will be joining the wildly successful Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. PopCap’s first social title has already hit 30 million users since its release 18 months ago and over 100 million sessions are played daily worldwide. Zuma Blitz will be rolled out via Beta in the next three weeks.

M.H. Williams has been writing in some form or another for ten years and has been a hardcore gamer since the NES first graced American shores.  You can catch him on Twitter as @AutomaticZen, Google+ as himself, or on his personal Facebook page.