The latest extension to PopCap's world-conquering Bejeweled franchise has finally been unleashed into the wild with the news that Bejeweled Blitz, a Facebook-only adaptation of the puzzler, has officially been released.
The game's been available in beta form since December 2008 and already attracts over 5m players a month on the leading social networking site. In total over 1bn sessions of the game have been played on the site, and PopCap also claims that 75 per cent of its users are female.
"One-minute Bejeweled was initially an in-house joke," PopCap's chief creative officer Jason Kapalka stated. "Who'd think anyone would play a 'casual' game with such a frenzied time limit?
GamaSutra - DeNA's Ben Cousins has been fascinated by digital games and their business model ever since he left Electronic Arts for Ngmoco -- and to start the Stockholm studio that would become Scattered Entertainment, staffed up with AAA talent from studios like Crytek and DICE. After four years heading up EA's free-to-play initiatives, Cousins was eager to pursue the model at a company that focused on digital 100 percent, not just as a strategy component.
AR: Bejeweled is an icon in gaming. It’s the definition of cross-platform fun, and since I played it on my Palm ages ago, it dates me. It’s the perfect time killer, and has the benefit of appealing to folks from all generations.
With so many people getting involved in games like Farmville 2 and SimCity Social and higher quality titles like PixelJunk Monsters, Outernauts and You Don't Know Jack showing up, the stigma that used to surround Facebook gamers is starting to face.
