UPDATED 13:33 EDT / NOVEMBER 10 2011

NEWS

Pokemon-esque Game for iPhone MinoMonsters Catches Them All December 16

There are thousands of apps available apps in Apple’s iTunes App Store and it’s really difficult to choose the right app.  Imaginary Feet’s Crosswa.lk could help you in your dilemma but I think most people, like me, have a simpler way: look for apps with high ratings and good reviews.  It’s so unlikely to get bad apps when you base it on the rating or reviews.  But this just makes it harder for small developers to gain traction in the App Store.  So what do developers do?  They turn to game publishers to get noticed but not everyone does this, especially smaller developers but if you’re a 15-year old genius, game publisher or not, you’d surely get noticed.

Josh Buckley, now 19, sold his first startup when he was 15 years old.  He moved to California from England in 2010 to work on MinoMonsters–a Pokemon-like game intended for iOS devices.  Pokemon was a global phenomenon but until now, it has never graced iDevices.

“All my friends – everyone – was addicted to ‘Pokemon’ in my generation,” Buckley said. “Nintendo has just let that brand go stale, and I don’t think it can make a comeback anymore. It’s stagnated.”

They are set to announce a $1 million round of funding from major Silicon Valley investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and Yuri Milner.  The company which started with three employees now has 11.  Buckley is MinoMonsters’ CEO and 25-year old TJ Murphy is the president.

“We’ve got a broader view of the market,” said Murphy, who previously co-founded social gaming startup SGN and later worked at Zynga. “We’ll be able to break out of the Silicon Valley hype machine and hit people who live in states other than California.”

MinoMonsters will be out on December 6 and according to Buckley’s tweets, the app would cost $0.99 and it will have in-app purchasing feature so you can buy new monsters.

As for other gaming news, it seems like Android and iOS app revenue outdid the mobile gaming revenue of Nintendo and Sony.  iOS and Android revenue is currently at 58% while Nintendo is at 36% and Sony only has 6%.  More people are into buying smartphones or tablets because they serve a lot of purpose unlike game consoles even if they are portable.  And there are a lot more apps that you can choose from compared to games available on game consoles.

Last Tuesday, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was finally launched and it is expected to reel in $1.5-$1.6 billion revenue.  The game is so hot that one man, frustrated by the long line, pulled out a gun because he can’t wait to get his hands on the game.  Geez… the game is already extremely violent, do you really need to make things real?  Makes you think twice if you really want people playing this game, remember the dude from Norway, who went on a killing-spree, practiced killing people playing Call of Duty? Anyway, the game is available for Xbox 360, PS3, PC for $59.99, $49.99 for Wii, and $29.99 for DS.


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