NBA Legend creator Lionside bought out by Ngmoco [Updated]

Update: An ngmoco spokesperson confirmed the news to ISG: "We can confirm that ngmoco has acquired the Lionside team. The terms of the agreement are undisclosed. We are very excited to have Lionside join the ngmoco and DeNA family. They are working on new products for the Mobage social gaming platform, bringing their passion and experience to our continuously expanding first party development capabilities."

Neither side seems to want anyone to know about it just yet, but signs are pointing toward a buyout in the works between ngmoco and Lionside. Inside Social Games reports that, according to numerous Lionside employee Linkedin pages, a shuttered website, an inactive Twitter account and Facebook games that simply aren't operational, ngmoco may have acquired the San Francisco-based company.

A tipster pointed ISG toward the Linkedin pages of Lionside VP of Business Operations Michael McBride and European Account Manager Kane Curran, both of which read that Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco. Not to mention that Lionside CEO Brandon Barber's Google+ profile reads, "Lionside & ngmoco marketing and product guy."

To add to the mountain of evidence that Lionside has potentially been acquired by ngmoco, the company's official website has been taken down. And neither NBA Legend nor Lionside Football are available to play, the former of which is "being enhanced," according to a page that has replaced the actual game on Facebook.

Unfortunately, both games have been performing poorly, garnering a mere total of just over 367,000 monthly players, according to AppData. So, this begs the question: If Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco, just what would the studio be up to in its new capacity? Ngmoco, since it was purchased by Japanese social gaming giant DeNA earlier this year, has been working diligently on a global version of the publisher's Mobage mobile social games network, which was just released for Android.

So, our best guess is that Lionside would be working on mobile social games to be played on the Mobage network, though it doesn't seem that Lionside has ever worked in mobile games as a company (official information from the company is unavailable at the moment). We've contacted Lionside for comment.

Are you convinced that ngmoco has purchased Lionside? What do you think or hope the studio will do for ngmoco and DeNA as a result?

Ngmoco names former Mattel exec as CMO to oversee Mobage launch

DeNA and Ngmoco really want the Mobage platform to succeed in the states and elsewhere. And who can blame them: Mobile is the proverbial final frontier for games companies. This must be why Ngmoco just announced that it has hired former Mattel marketing executive Michael Staskin to oversee the company's marketing push for Mobage, DeNA's mobile social gaming network for Android devices (and soon iPhone and iPad).

Staskin most recently served as VP of marketing and communications at Milan, Italy-based gaming and lottery company Sisal SpA. At Ngmoco he will "lead all global marketing and communications efforts for the company," according to a release, and that includes things like advertising, public relations and customer acquistion. In layman's terms, it's Staskin's job to get more mobile gamers to use Mobage.

"ngmoco is poised to forever change the way people interact with content on their mobile devices," new Ngmoco CMO Staskin said in a release. "I'm excited to introduce consumers around the world to Mobage, a new way to consume, share and experience mobile entertainment."

A report by JP Morgan in Tokyo, via Serkan Toto, said there have been between 50,000 and 100,000 installs of the Mobage app for Android devices, calling that number "extremely small." So yeah, DeNA and Ngmoco could certainly use a guy like Staskin to get more players on their mobile social gaming platform. And with developers like Grasshopper Manufacture and Atakama Labs on board, perhaps Mobage has yet to "arrive."

[Image Credit: Business People Italy]

Do you think Staskin will bring what it takes for Mobage to come out on top as the premier mobile social gaming platform? Have you tried Mobage for Android?

Find free Android games through OpenFeint's Game Channel app

Gree and OpenFeint just opened fire on DeNA and Ngmoco's Mobage network for Android. DeNA's primary competitors abroad just announced that Game Channel has arrived on Android devices. Known on iOS devices as OpenFeint's mobile games discovery platform, Game Channel offers Android gamers a way to discover new games to play, namely free-to-play games.

Through Game Channel, OpenFeint will display games to users such as the Featured Game and Free Game of the Day, which the company says will include free in-game items, too. As for curation, OpenFeint will recognize notable free games under its Free Games That Rock category, and highlight game personally recommended by the company within Feint's Featured Picks.

The Game Channel app will also recommend games based on the seasons and other themes like holidays. Players will get to access their profiles and other social features right from within Game Channel, and OpenFeint will recommend new releases. This news comes just as OpenFeint finds itself with a new CEO, former Gree exec Naoki Aoyagi, and a new director of developer relations, Sarah Thompson.

Gree and DeNA have begun to battle for mobile social gaming supremacy vicariously through their strategic acquisitions, OpenFeint and Ngmoco, respectively. While Ngmoco is reportedly seeking more users to bolster its rather small number of Mobage users, OpenFeint reports welcoming 128 million players across all platforms. But it's also important to note the amount of developer support DeNA and Ngmoco have garnered recently. And now Zynga is heavy into mobile gaming--oy vey.

Are an Android gamer that has trouble finding new mobile social games to play? Do you think OpenFeint will provide that solution better than Mobage can, and which do you prefer?

Ngmoco names former Mattel exec as CMO to oversee Mobage launch

Staskin most recently served as VP of marketing and communications at Milan, Italy-based gaming and lottery company Sisal SpA. At Ngmoco he will "lead all global marketing and communications efforts for the company," according to a release, and that includes things like advertising, public relations and customer acquistion. In layman's terms, it's Staskin's job to get more mobile gamers to use Mobage.

Find free Android games through OpenFeint's Game Channel app

Through Game Channel, OpenFeint will display games to users such as the Featured Game and Free Game of the Day, which the company says will include free in-game items, too. As for curation, OpenFeint will recognize notable free games under its Free Games That Rock category, and highlight game personally recommended by the company within Feint's Featured Picks.

The Game Channel app will also recommend games based on the seasons and other themes like holidays. Players will get to access their profiles and other social features right from within Game Channel, and OpenFeint will recommend new releases. This news comes just as OpenFeint finds itself with a new CEO, former Gree exec Naoki Aoyagi, and a new director of developer relations, Sarah Thompson.

NBA Legend creator Lionside bought out by Ngmoco [Updated]

Update: An ngmoco spokesperson confirmed the news to ISG: "We can confirm that ngmoco has acquired the Lionside team. The terms of the agreement are undisclosed. We are very excited to have Lionside join the ngmoco and DeNA family. They are working on new products for the Mobage social gaming platform, bringing their passion and experience to our continuously expanding first party development capabilities."

Neither side seems to want anyone to know about it just yet, but signs are pointing toward a buyout in the works between ngmoco and Lionside. Inside Social Games reports that, according to numerous Lionside employee Linkedin pages, a shuttered website, an inactive Twitter account and Facebook games that simply aren't operational, ngmoco may have acquired the San Francisco-based company.

A tipster pointed ISG toward the Linkedin pages of Lionside VP of Business Operations Michael McBride and European Account Manager Kane Curran, both of which read that Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco. Not to mention that Lionside CEO Brandon Barber's Google+ profile reads, "Lionside & ngmoco marketing and product guy."

To add to the mountain of evidence that Lionside has potentially been acquired by ngmoco, the company's official website has been taken down. And neither NBA Legend nor Lionside Football are available to play, the former of which is "being enhanced," according to a page that has replaced the actual game on Facebook.

Unfortunately, both games have been performing poorly, garnering a mere total of just over 367,000 monthly players, according to AppData. So, this begs the question: If Lionside has been acquired by ngmoco, just what would the studio be up to in its new capacity? Ngmoco, since it was purchased by Japanese social gaming giant DeNA earlier this year, has been working diligently on a global version of the publisher's Mobage mobile social games network, which was just released for Android.

So, our best guess is that Lionside would be working on mobile social games to be played on the Mobage network, though it doesn't seem that Lionside has ever worked in mobile games as a company (official information from the company is unavailable at the moment). We've contacted Lionside for comment.

Are you convinced that ngmoco has purchased Lionside? What do you think or hope the studio will do for ngmoco and DeNA as a result? Sound off in the comments. Add Comment.