Online Gaming Tidbits for May 2nd, 2010

A few of the latest online gaming related stories in the news:

• In an interview with Gamasutra, Ben Cousins, general manager of Electronic Arts’ new free-to-play group, discusses the rise of free-to-play at EA with their Battlefield Heroes, Lord of Ultima and BattleForge properties.
• When Realtime World’s cops vs. robbers MMO APB releases, its publisher EA will try a novel new payment model for the genre: 50 hours of online gameplay in its ‘Action’ districts come with the $50 title, and after that, an additional 20 hours will cost $6.99. Socializing in other districts doesn’t won’t towards your hours left however.
• FarmVille numbers just continue to boggle the mind. A recent survey from GamePlan Insights reveals that of gamers aware of the game, 21% play it daily.
• How many data centers does it take to launch a global streaming video game service? Dave Perry’s upcoming Gaikai will launch with 300 of them and require a ping time of no more 5-10 milliseconds. Further announcements are slated for this year’s E3.
• InstantAction’s approach at digital game distribution meanwhile evolves around their concept of ‘play anywhere‘, promising the ability to embed full games into a browser. A version of The Secret of Monkey Island showcases their new distribution platform.
• Being overwhelmed by popularity at launch is a problem most developers would love to have. Ngmoco’s iPhone and iPad farming game We Rule had seen its servers take some hits lately, and they’ve been using the game’s Twitter account to keep people updated on their status. CEO and co-founder Neil Young went a step further with an honest progress report stating they’d simply underestimated the number of people that would play the game.

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