A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system, on different computing systems via a local area network, or via a wide area network, most commonly the Internet. Multiplayer games usually require players to share a single game system or use networking technology to play together over a greater distance; players may compete against one or more human contestants, work cooperatively with a human partner to achieve a common goal, or supervise other players' activity. Due to multiplayer games allowing players to interact with other individuals, they provide an element of social communication absent from single-player games.
Ensemble Studios was an American video game developer. It was founded by Tony Goodman in 1994 and incorporated the following year. It borrowed the name of Ensemble Corporation, a consulting firm founded by Goodman in 1990. It was acquired by Microsoft in 2001 and operated as an internal studio until 2009, when its development capabilities were officially disbanded. Ensemble developed many real-time strategy games, including the Age of Empires game series, Age of Mythology, and Halo Wars. In addition to game development, Ensemble Studios also made the Genie Game Engine used in Age of Empires, Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings, and Star Wars: Galactic Battlegrounds. The studio sold 20 million games and was worth an estimated $500 million.
Tile tracking is a technique most commonly associated with the game of Scrabble and similar word games. It refers to the practice of keeping track of letters played on the game board, typically by crossing letters off a score sheet or tracking grid as the tiles are played. Tracking tiles can be an important aid to strategy, especially during the endgame when there are no tiles left to draw, where careful tracking allows each player to deduce the remaining unseen letters on the opponent's final rack. The marking off of each letter from a pre-printed tracking grid as the tiles are played is a standard feature of tournament play.
Aurora Feint was a video game series developed by Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron for iOS. Aurora Feint The Beginning was released in the first wave of App Store applications in July 2008 and was a free single-player game which combines the geometric shape manipulation of Tetris Attack with the character-building aspects of a role-playing game. Aurora Feint II: The Beginning was released in December 2008 and added graphical and community features. Aurora Feint II: The Arena was released in November 2008, adding multiplayer features and was billed by the developers as the first casual asynchronous massively multiplayer online game. Aurora Feint II: Tower Puzzles was released in December 2008 and provided dozens of visual brain teasers based on the "tower" locations in the other titles.
Mob Wars is a multiplayer role-playing game hosted on the social networking site Facebook. It allows players to engage in Mafia-style wars with one another and has become one of the most lucrative Facebook applications and the first to net US$1M per month in revenue. However, this number has never been confirmed by the developer or any third parties.
Zynga Inc. is an American developer running social video game services. It was founded in April 2007, with headquarters in San Mateo, California. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games".
Mafia Wars is a defunct freemium multiplayer social network game created by Zynga. Players assume the roles of gangsters while building their own Mafia-type organization. The players fight and "rob" other players online - completing jobs, missions, and operations to gain rewards and strength in an endless game.
FarmVille is a series of agriculture-simulation social network games developed and published by Zynga in 2009. It is similar to Happy Farm and Farm Town. Its gameplay involves various aspects of farmland management, such as plowing land, planting, growing, and harvesting crops, harvesting trees and raising livestock. The sequels FarmVille 2 and FarmVille 3 were released in September 2012 and November 2021, respectively.
Rock Band is a music video game released for the iOS. It was co-developed by EA Montreal and Harmonix, and was published by Electronic Arts and MTV Games. The game was released as a part of the Rock Band series for download through the App Store in several regions on October 19, 2009. On May 2, 2012, RockBandAide announced that EA intended to discontinue Rock Band with servers being disconnected and support being dropped on May 31, 2012. However, EA stated that the message was "sent in error" and the app would remain available to those who purchased the app. It was later announced that due to an expiring contract with Harmonix the game would be removed from the App Store. This occurred on July 31, 2012, and the game is now currently unavailable; though users who have previously downloaded the game can continue to play it.
Game Center is a service by Apple that allows users to play and challenge friends when playing online multiplayer social gaming network games. Games can now share multiplayer functionality between the Mac and iOS versions of the app.
We Rule was a free-to-play mobile game developed by Newtoy and published by ngmoco for iOS and later on Android. It was available for download on the iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad on the App Store or iTunes, and attracted many users since its release in March 2010. Although a free app, customers were able to buy in-app purchases; as of April 2010, it was the highest-grossing free-to-download game for the iOS. Within weeks of release, We Rule was estimated to have been downloaded millions of times, with approximately two million user sessions per day. Its gameplay was in part inspired by the Zynga game FarmVille.
CityVille was a casual social city-building game developed by Zynga, and released in December 2010.
Zynga with Friends was a video game developer founded in 2008 by brothers Paul Bettner and David Bettner, and their cousin Michael Chow. In November 2008, Newtoy, Inc. released its first game for the iPhone and iPod touch, Chess with Friends, an asynchronous multiplayer game released for the Apple App Store. In August the following year, it released its second game for iPhone and iPod touch, Words with Friends, another asynchronous multiplayer game with gameplay similar to Scrabble, which ultimately became their best known game. In November 2010, the company was acquired by Zynga for $53.3 million and an undisclosed amount of stock. Following the acquisition, the studio would be rebranded to Zynga with Friends in December of that year. Newtoy would be the company's fourteenth acquisition within its peak years.
Words with Friends is a multiplayer computer word game developed by Newtoy. Players take turns building words crossword-puzzle style in a manner similar to the classic board game Scrabble. The rules of the two games are similar, but Words with Friends is not associated with the Scrabble brand. Up to 40 games can be played simultaneously using push notifications to alert players when it is their turn. Players may look up friends either by username or through Facebook, or be randomly assigned an opponent through "Smart Match". Players can also find potential opponents using Community Match.
Zynga Poker is a social game developed by Zynga as an application for the social-networking website Facebook as well as Android, iPhone, Windows Phone, Windows, MySpace, Tagged, and Google+. It was launched in July 2007.
NimbleBit, LLC is an American developer and publisher of iOS and Android mobile apps. It was co-founded by brothers David and Ian Marsh. Their titles include Pocket Frogs, Tiny Tower, Pocket Planes and Disco Zoo.
Word Streak is a word game developed by Zynga with Friends for iOS and Android and released in January 2012. Gameplay is similar to that of Boggle—players try to find as many words as possible in a jumbled 4x4 grid of letters by connecting adjacent letters to form words within a two-minute time frame - though with extra features and a different scoring system. Words may be formed vertically, horizontally, and diagonally. Scramble with Friends is one of the top ranking games in the iOS application store, available as both a free ad-supported version and an ad-less paid version. Scramble with Friends replaced Scramble Challenge at the end of 2011, but did not retain the solitaire option of the latter.
CityVille 2 is a defunct casual social city-building simulation game developed by Zynga and released globally on Facebook November 1, 2012. CityVille 2 was a 3D game that was story-based, with a mystery that unfolds as the player’s city evolves and it was a sequel to CityVille. The game was free, though players had the option to purchase premium content.
Letterpress is a 2012 turn-based word game developed by Loren Brichter and published by Atebits. In the game, two players take turns creating words with tiles to cover the most territory. They can lock tiles by selecting other tiles that surround it. The game's development started in November 2011 after Brichter left Twitter, Inc. Focused on combining words with color, he based the game design on Boggle, color wars, and SpellTower. The gameplay gradually evolved during beta testing; in the prototype, players would tend to avoid claiming the remaining tiles on the board, leading to excessively long games.
Empires & Allies was a strategy video game by Zynga. It was released on May 5, 2015 for Android and iOS. The game is a freemium game, meaning there was no cost to play but players had the option of purchasing premium content.
