games
Twitch’s extensions – the tools that allows streamers to customize their channel pages with interactive experiences, including leaderboards, polls, schedules, and more – are now available on mobile. The game…
Google Play Instant lets you try games without having to install them
Last year, Google launched Instant Apps, a way for developers to give users a native app experience that didn’t involve having to install anything. Users would simply click on a…
Volley’s voice games for smart speakers have amassed over half a million monthly users
The rapid consumer adoption of smart speakers like Amazon Echo and Google Home has opened opportunities for developers creating voice apps, too. At least that’s true in the case of…
Facebook’s Instant Games are now open to all developers, Facebook announced this week in advance of the Game Developers Conference. First launched in 2016, the platform lets developers build mobile-friendly…
Amazon will now pay Alexa developers for top-performing skills for kids
Last year, Amazon announced a program that would reward developers for building popular and well-received Alexa skills, by doling out cash payments for top-performing skills. Initially, the program was only…
Microsoft’s Mixer follows Twitch with addition of direct tipping and game sales
Mixer, Microsoft’s answer to Twitch, will soon allow its streamers to start selling games and other downloadable content via its service, and will introduce tipping, the company announced this week…
Alexa now suggests more games to try at the end of the one you’re playing
Consumers are starting to give Alexa’s voice apps, called skills, more of their attention. During CES this week — where Amazon is battling for attention with Google Assistant across the…
Consumers dropped $200 million on apps on Christmas, up 12 percent from last year
Consumers spent $196 million on apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions on Christmas Day 2017 across the App Store and Google Play, according to new data from Sensor Tower. The report,…
Pixel art coloring book apps are the newest App Store craze
Has your kid bugged you to let them download Sandbox Coloring? You’re probably not alone. The latest trend blowing up on the App Store is a new twist on the…
Crunch Report | Apple Confirms Shazam Acquisition
Apple confirms its Shazam acquisition, MyEtherWallet knockoff goes live on the App Store and is now removed and the NFL is partnering with Verizon and is now streaming football games…
Apple’s ‘App of the Day’ featuring boosts downloads by 1747%, games by 792%
New research from Apptopia, out today, takes a look at the impact getting featured as the App or Game of the Day on the new iOS App Store has on…
‘Stranger Things’ hype reaches SNES levels with retro-style demake for iOS
In case you’ve been living in the upside-down for the last few weeks, the second season of “Stranger Things” is imminent. And you know what that means… media tie-ins! Today…
Stardew Valley lands on Nintendo Switch on October 5
The games library for the Nintendo Switch is already great, but it keeps getting better: Farming simulator Stardew Valley is coming to the hybrid portable console on October 5, which…
After a 4% pop, Rovio closes at a lackluster €11.50, level with its IPO price
Rovio, maker of the Angry Birds gaming franchise, saw a small pop of 4.3 percent in its first day of trading as a public company, but like the very birds…
Preschoolers get their own Pokémon game with launch of Pokémon Playhouse
A new app called Pokémon Playhouse from the Pokémon Company, released this week, is bringing Pikachu and friends to preschoolers. Unlike the augmented reality game Pokémon Go, a collaboration between…
Microsoft’s new Mixer Create app lets you live stream games from your phone
Microsoft’s mobile game streaming app Mixer Create is launching out of beta testing today on iOS and Android, allowing gamers to broadcast the games they’re playing right from their phone.…
Toy company Hasbro is belatedly entering the subscription service market with today’s launch of Hasbro Gaming Crate – a service that ships a themed box containing three board games to…
Google Play introduces ‘Android Excellence’ collections that showcase editorially selected top apps and games
At WWDC this month, Apple introduced an entirely revamped App Store that puts a much greater focus on editorial, with plans for stories about the apps, how to’s, interviews, and…
In March, video game streaming site Twitch introduced a new way for its streamers to make money: by selling games directly to their fans. Initially, however, that feature was only…
Microsoft’s game streaming service Beam rebrands as Mixer, adds co-streaming, a guide & mobile broadcasting
Microsoft’s live-streaming service Beam, which the company acquired last year shortly after it emerged as the winner of the TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield, is today getting a new name: Mixer. The name…
It didn’t make the cut as one of the many announcements to emerge from Microsoft’s Build 2017 event this week, but this morning the company unveiled that Minecraft – the game…
A new social polling game called Treeo has launched its modern-day (and cleaned up version) of the popular party game, f*ck, marry, kill. But this time, instead of voting on your plans…
‘Scanner Sombre’ arms you with lidar for a gorgeous, creepy explore-’em-up
Something about the polychromatic pointillism of lidar imagery has always intrigued me, but as a writer I can’t say I have many opportunities to use the technology. That’s why I’m…
An NBA team is turning their scoreboard into an AR basketball game
Yo dawg, I heard you like basketball, so we built an AR basketball game you can play while you’re at a basketball game. Ok fine, this isn’t how the reigning NBA Champion…
Crunch Report | Uber Releases Its Diversity Report
Tencent invests huge in Tesla, Uber releases its diversity report, Elon Musk’s new company Neuralink, and Twitch gets the itch to start selling games. All this on Crunch Report.
Twitch to start selling video games as soon as this week [Updated]
Video game streaming site Twitch will soon begin selling PC games and other in-game content on its site, the company says. We understand the games may arrive as soon as tomorrow or…
Super Mario Run hits Android, rolls out version two on iOS
Super Mario Run hit Android a day early. Originally expected today, March 23, per Nintendo’s earlier announcement, the game arrived on the Google Play Store yesterday instead, along with an…
Apple gives indie gamers a permanent home on the App Store
Breaking into the App Store can be difficult enough, but for small-time mobile game developers it’s even more of a challenge as they go up against billion-dollar, global publishers that…
Google Play now considers user engagement, not just downloads, in ranking games
Google is making a significant change to how its app store, Google Play, will work in terms of making the best games more easily discoverable by end users. At the…
Twitch will sell video games on its site starting this spring
Amazon-owned video game streaming site Twitch announced this morning that it will now sell games directly on its platform – a not entirely surprising expansion for the service where developers are already…
