Microsoft employees may eat their own dog food, but they won't have to code cross-platform Windows Phone 7 games in their spare time -- Redmond job postings recently revealed that there's a studio for that, which will develop and publish first- and second-party titles on the company's dime. According to job descriptions, the newly-christened "MGS Mobile" will develop "showcase" Windows Phone 7 titles with an emphasis on connected play, and also incubate titles from indie devs and partners like the original Microsoft Game Studios, its older Xbox-based sibling. Interestingly enough, games won't necessarily be limited to Windows Phone 7 devices, but may appear on "emerging mobile platforms" as well -- the idea being to advance Microsoft's position in the mobile gaming space rather than just pimp the WP7 platform. Is the world ready for Halo on MeeGo? Oh, you bet your britches it is. Just don't expect to see Xbox games on Android, yo.

Microsoft to open mobile games studio, develop and incubate Windows Phone 7 titles originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Microsoft to open mobile games studio, develop and incubate Windows…

It was only a matter of time. Since last summer, we’ve been tracking the progress of SCVNGR, a location-based gaming platform that allows users to build engaging, real-world scavenger hunts that use their mobile devices to both receive clues and solve riddles. Until now the service has primarily catered to museums, universities, and businesses, who use it for things like tours, orientations, and team-building exercises (they’re up to over 600 paying customers). Now SCVNGR, which recently raised $4 million from Google Ventures,  is getting a bit more ambitious: it’s looking to turn the world into one big scavenger hunt, and it’s going to be taking on the likes of Foursquare and Gowalla in the process.

To mark the launch of this new consumer-facing side of SCVNGR, the startup has launched new applications for iPhone and Android (you can grab the iPhone app here, and a QR code for the Android app is here) (it’s US-only for now). If you’ve used Foursquare or Gowalla before, the applications should look pretty familiar at first — you can ‘check-in’ to any of the 20 million venues in the SCVNGR database and see what your friends are up to. But there’s a key difference: SCVNGR revolves around interactive ‘challenges’, which users are prompted to complete when they visit a venue. These can range from simple things, like the act of checking-in at a venue or taking a goofy photo with a store mannequin, to much richer experiences, depending on how creative the business gets.

SCVNGR CEO Seth Priebatsch acknowledges that this is already a crowded space with some very well-funded competitors, but he believes that this ‘challenge’ angle will be enough to differentiate SCVNGR from the rest of the pack. He explains that the value of a check-in on a service like Foursquare tends to be very transient in nature — if you see that check-in an hour or two after it was created, there’s a good chance it is no longer relevant, as the user may well have moved on to their next destination. Challenges, Priebatsch believes, have a much longer shelf life.

As an example, Priebatsch described what might happen if you walked into a local burrito shop that had set up a few challenges on SCVNGR. After pulling out your phone and checking in, the app could prompt you to build an origami figure out of the tin foil your burrito came in, and to upload a picture of your creation to the service.  Doing so would reward you with some SCVNGR points (which are currently valueless but will likely be part of a reward system in the future). So while your friends may not see your check-in by hours or days, they would probably still enjoy the photo of your burrito’s tin foil swan. Another challenge could charge users with using clues scattered around a store to solve a riddle, for example.

Challenges can be created by anyone, including both business owners and their customers (you could also create challenges at a non-business venue like a park if you wanted to). Screening and flagging systems are in place to ensure that there aren’t any inappropriate challenges. And while most challenges will be created from phones, businesses that want to create challenges at multiple locations at once (like a restaurant chain), will be able to do so using SCVNGR’s enterprise tools.

In some ways SCVNGR is late to the game — aside from Foursquare, there are plenty of other competitors, including Loopt, Gowalla, Brightkite, and probably Facebook in the near future, and all of them are going to be vying for attention from local businesses. Every venue in SCVNGR’s database will come with three basic challenges (one of which is a basic check-in), but it will only be fun if users and businesses start putting the time in to make engaging, creative challenges. In this sense, there’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg problem.

All of that said, I like that SCVNGR is setting out to offer a more engaging experience than Foursquare and Gowalla, which I got bored of pretty quickly (yes, I know plenty of people are totally addicted to them — I just find the gaming elements of these services to be superficial). I suspect the popularity of SCVNGR will be tied to how widespread challenges are, and, more important, how fun they are. Likewise, SCVNGR is going to have to incent users to play the game by getting businesses to offer rewards and coupons for completing their challenges (show them the money). Some gamers will keep jumping on to SCVNGR because it’s fun, but the service needs a carrot to dangle in front of users to get them hooked.

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Google-Backed SCVNGR Takes On Foursquare, Looks To Boost Fun With…

Last week, well-known web/iPhone developer Joe Hewitt decided to rant on Twitter. His target? The state of web development. In 25 or so tweets, Hewitt ripped apart the state of the industry. Obviously, his impassioned views caused some controversy. But more than a few people felt his views were right on the money as well. Today, at Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, a couple prominent sides in the industry addressed his comments.

During the “What to Expect from Browsers in the Next Five Years: A Perspective” session, panelists were asked directly about Hewitt’s thoughts. Google’s Alex Russell stepped forward to say that while he was a fan of Hewitt’s work, and feels his pain, he disagrees with his assessment that web development is moving too slowly. In his view, web development is moving faster now than it ever has. “I feel like a lot of his comments totally ring true to me about two years ago,” Russell said noting that back then he was working on a JavaScript toolkit (just as Hewitt used to do), “it was hell.”

But now, thanks to WebKit and specially, CSS-based animations, life is much easier, Russell concluded. And, as more browsers continue to support the type of advanced CSS that runs through the GPU, things will only get better. “It’s buttery-smooth,” Russell said noting that this support was coming to all browsers shortly.

Perhaps Hewitt’s best quote in his rant was: “I want desperately to be a web developer again, but if I have to wait until 2020 for browsers to do what Cocoa can do in 2010, I won’t wait.“

Russell said he understands that frustration, but again, believes that the rate of improvement is increasing rather than remains stagnant. “It’s not all better yet – but it’s getting better at a pace that in 5 years we’ll accept what’s bleeding edge right now,” he said. Meanwhile, Yahoo’s Douglas Crockford echoed some of Hewitt’s sentiments later in the panel. “We have a strong risk of losing openness,” Crockford said noting that the web is based on standards, and standards have to move slowly or “they’re crap.” So who will they lose this openness to? The app stores.

Find the rest of the notes about the panel here. What’s interesting is just how much those that no longer have a stake in the game (Hewitt) are at odds with those who do have a stake in the game (Google, etc). While web development is no doubt better than it was 5 years ago, I can’t help but think that a lot of what Hewitt says is true. After all, this lack of innovation is at least partially to blame for the rise of the app stores.

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Google Responds to Joe Hewitt: Your Argument Is Two Years Old

Meizu MStore open for business, Mr. Jelly on sale now for 29 cents originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Meizu MStore open for business, Mr. Jelly on sale now for 29 cents

Facebook is completely rewriting their messaging product and is preparing to launch a fully featured webmail product in its place, according to a source with knowledge of the product. Internally it’s known as Project Titan. Or, unofficially and perhaps over-enthusiastically, the Gmail killer.

Facebook messaging has been the bane of users’ existence for years. My first public gripe was in 2008, when I said that urgent changes were needed. The biggest problem is simply deleting old emails. It takes so long that I have thousands of unread and read but not deleted messages in my inbox.

But Facebook messaging is also only indirectly linked to the email, which is still the standard way that people exchange digital messages when not on Facebook.

Facebook has occasionally dabbled with improvements to messaging, like adding the ability to search messages. But for the most part it has remained static. And not very useful.

Even MySpace moved away from their aging messaging platform to a true webmail service in 2008 (albeit one that lacked POP or IMAP support).

But now Facebook is getting itself back in the game. And if the details we’ve heard are accurate, Project Titan, or whatever it’s called when it launches, may be the kind of product people flock to.

First, our understanding is that there will be full POP/IMAP support, meaning users can access the account other than through Facebook itself. Your email account name will be your vanity url – vanityurl@facebook.com.

Email is all about identity. And Facebook is ahead of everyone else in the identity game via Facebook Connect. Facebook says more than 60 million people log in to 80,000 third party websites each month via Facebook Connect.

Tacking a real webmail product on top of those vanity URLs and Facebook connect is something even Google may shudder at. Gmail killer? I don’t think so. But a strong product move nonetheless.

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Facebook’s Project Titan: A Full Featured Webmail Product

T-Mobile today shared some of these details, along with announcing a number of ways they'd be increasing their support for the Android Market.

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T-Mobile shares some Android statistics, will soon support carrier…

Last weekend I wrote about how the big social gaming companies are making hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue on Facebook and MySpace through games like Farmville and Mobsters. Major media can’t stop applauding the companies long enough to understand what’s really going on with these games. The real story isn’t the business success of these startups. It’s the completely unethical way that they are going about achieving that success.

In short, these games try to get people to pay cash for in game currency so they can level up faster and have a better overall experience. Which is fine. But for users who won’t pay cash, a wide variety of “offers” are available where they can get in-game currency in exchange for lead gen-type offers. Most of these offers are bad for consumers because it confusingly gets them to pay far more for in-game currency than if they just paid cash (there are notable exceptions, but the scammy stuff tends to crowd out the legitimate offers). And it’s also bad for legitimate advertisers.

The reason why I call this an ecosystem is that it’s a self-reinforcing downward cycle. Users are tricked into these lead gen scams. The games get paid, and they plow that money back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising, getting more users. Who are then monetized via lead gen scams. That money is then plowed back into Facebook and MySpace in advertising to get more users…

Here’s the really insidious part: game developers who monetize the best (and that’s Zynga) make the most money and can spend the most on advertising. Those that won’t touch this stuff (Slide and others) fall further and further behind. Other game developers have to either get in on the monetization or fall behind as well. Companies like Playdom and Playfish seem to be struggling with their conscience and are constantly shifting their policies on lead gen.

The games that scam the most, win.

And some users aren’t dumb, either. For every user who gets tricked into some fake mobile subscription, there’s another who can beat the system. That’s where the legitimate advertisers, like Netflix and Blockbuster, get hit. Users sign up for a free trial with a credit card, get their game currency, then cancel the membership and start over. Netflix has a policy of only paying for a user once. But game developers use a complex set of partner chains to launder these leads and try to get them through for payment. Netflix sees an overall lowering of quality and pays less for leads. Game developers, desperate to monetize, then search for ever more questionable offers to make up the difference. In the end, the decent advertisers are out, and only the worst of the worst remain.

Left alone, the system really will slide into a full blown disaster. The platforms (Facebook and MySpace) are in a position to regulate this, and even have rules prohibiting some scams. But those rules are routinely ignored by developers, and are rarely enforced by Facebook and MySpace.

There can be only one reason Facebook and MySpace turn a blind eye to user protection – they’re getting such a huge cut of revenue back from these developers in advertising. If they turn off the spigot, they hurt themselves.

Zynga may be spending $50 million a year on Facebook advertising alone, fueled partially by lead gen scams. Wonder how Facebook got to profitability way ahead of schedule? It was a surge in this kind of advertising. The money looks clean – it’s from Zynga, Playfish, Playdom and others. But a large portion of it is coming from users who’ve been tricked into one scam or another.

And recent moves by Facebook to shut down application spam only make the problem worse in some way – game developers have to spend more money on advertisers to get users now that the viral channels are shut down. That means the games have to monetize even better. Which means more scams.

It’s time for this to stop. Facebook and MySpace need to create and enforce rules against it so that game developers aren’t tempted to get a competitive edge by scamming users. And if Facebook/MySpace won’t protect users, then the government will have to step in.

There’s an easy way to determine if something is a scam or not. For any particular offer, ask yourself if anyone would buy the product or service if the terms were clearly spelled out for them, and they weren’t being bribed with in-game currency. The answer for many of these is a resounding “no.” A few examples are below.

Examples Of Scams:

A typical scam: users are offered in game currency in exchange for filling out an IQ survey. Four simple questions are asked. The answers are irrelevant. When the user gets to the last question they are told their results will be text messaged to them. They are asked to enter in their mobile phone number, and are texted a pin code to enter on the quiz. Once they’ve done that, they’ve just subscribed to a $9.99/month subscription. Tatto Media is the company at the very end of the line on most mobile scams, and they flow it up through Offerpal, SuperRewards and others to the game developers.

As you can see in the image below, nothing in the offer says that the user will be billed $10/month forever for a useless service.

Another scam: Video Professor. Users are offered in game currency if they sign up to receive a free learning CD from Video Professor. The user is told they pay nothing except a $10 shipping charge. But the fine print, on a different page from checkout, tells them they are really getting a whole set of CDs and will be billed $189.95 unless they return them. Most users never return them because they don’t know about the extra charge. Woot. Again, sites like Offerpal and SuperRewards flow these offers through to game developers. See here for more on the Video Professor scam.

Of course, there’s no mention of any of these payments in the offer itself:

An Industry In Denial

Yesterday I attended the Virtual Goods Summit in San Francisco. In the Q&A session of one panel I asked Offerpal CEO Anu Shukla to explain the ethics of her business, and outlined my ecosystem of hell argument above. Shukla went on a tirade, calling my points “shit, doubleshit, and bullshit” (yes, really), but never really addressed the points. A video of the exchange is below, care of Alexa Lee.

Offerpal now has a blog post up on the exchange, but they still don’t address the issues. They offer misdirection, denials and a shield of rules that are never actually enforced.

Sadly, most of the audience of game developers was on Offerpal’s side. Many of these developers see quick dollars with lead gen scams and they don’t really care about how users are affected.

In one session earlier in the day, IGG Cofounder Kevin Xu recommended that game developers “get users in the door to play free, then monetize the hell out of them once they’re hooked.” Sadly, it’s simply human nature to push the rules until they break. It’s time for Facebook and MySpace to protect their users from this stuff and make sure it stops.

p.s. – An interesting development. Offerpal defended their mobile survey scams on stage and in the blog post referenced above, saying there was no scam involved. But today those offers have quietly been pulled down from all the games I’ve checked. If there’s no scam, why remove them? At least some good is coming from my ongoing rants.

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Scamville: The Social Gaming Ecosystem Of Hell

With the recent iPod Touch update Apple has positioned and marketed the device as a new type of mobile gaming platform. Games have always been some of the best selling applications in the AppStore for both the iPod Touch and the iPhone. A recent advertisement for the iPod Touch carries the slogan “The Funnest iPod Ever” and features a number of games. We decided to try out and review each of the games featured in the ad and rate the ‘fun factor’ ourselves.

The Apple mobile devices have become decent gaming machines, with some of the newer games providing in-depth 3D environments and absorbing gameplay. We found a number of games that were extremely well developed and addictive, as good and better than most of the dedicated mobile gaming devices available on the market today.

We previously reviewed the best iPhone Apps so far this year. The following is our review of 12 of the new iPod Touch and iPhone games featured and highlighted in the recent Apple campaign.

If you have found any cool and fun new games for the iPod Touch or iPhone, or you have a particular favorite game, let us know in the comments.

Top Gun

TechCrunch Rating:

Download: Rated 9+; $1.99

After watching Top Gun for the first time, who didn’t want to be a Navy Fighter Pilot – flying around shooting planes out of the sky to save your country, and being called awesome monikers like Maverick and Ice Man? With Paramount Pictures Top Gun iPhone app, you can get closer to this experience. The best part of it is, you can do it to the tune of Danger Zone.

The game features 10 missions, each one increasing in difficulty as you progress. The controls are balanced and the game is well designed for the most part. The graphics were crisp, and there was no frame lag when I played. It did seem odd though that the game had no throttle control: you are unable to speed up nor slow down, which meant I couldn’t use my favorite Top Gun quote, “You’re gonna do what,?!” while playing. The lack of a multiplayer mode keeps me from giving it a higher ranking, but for two bucks, you can’t really go wrong. Playing to Danger Zone adds another star to the rating, it just pumps me up everytime.

Real Racing

TechCrunch Rating:

Download: Rated 4+; $6.99

This is the closest an iPhone game has come to either Gran Turismo or Project Gotham. Real Racing is for the true racing enthusiast and gamer. There are 48 cars in 4 different classes, and the game boasts a massive 76 events in its career mode. The game offers automatic acceleration, as well as manual for those who truly want a challenge. Furthermore, the game offers a six person local multiplayer (through a WiFi network) so you can test your skills with all of your friends. On top of a global leaderboard, Real Racing has customizable leaderboards so that you can always hold your superiority over the heads of those closest to you.

Overall, this game is amazing. The graphics are awesome, the gameplay is crisp, and you can even post your best races straight to youtube! The only thing that seems to be missing is a non-local multiplayer so that you can challenge anyone around the world, but the upsides far outweigh this point. Definitely worth the $6.99.

Monster Trucks Nitro

TechCrunch Rating:

Download: Rated 4+; $0.99

The goal of Monster Trucks Nitro is to race down the eight different tracks as fast as you can while surmounting the obstacles which the game lays out. The game awards either a Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal depending on how fast you complete the races. Monster Trucks Nitro is a fun game and kept me engaged for a short while.

Unfortunately, I finished quite quickly and realized that there was no replay value to it other than simply going for all Gold medals. Also, there was no real sense of speed even when I used the Nitro. The graphics are decent, the framerate is adequate, and the multiple camera angles add a neat aspect to this game. However, the amount of content is definitely the shortcoming in this game and keeps it from a better rating.

3D Rollercoaster Rush

TechCrunch Rating:

Download: Rated 4+; $4.99; Limited Free Version

Looking at the description of this game, I didn’t think there was any way this game could be worth the $4.99 price tag, so I downloaded and installed the free and restriction version to try it out. Within minutes of playing the free version, I was hooked, and immediately purchased the full version for $4.99. The graphics are awesome, and I have yet to get past all of the levels. The carts can go faster or slower through the use of the accelerometer and the stunts which you can perform are, as the description describes, “insane.”

Being able to race the game designer’s time and demolish it is pretty satisfying, but I would still like a multiplayer function if I’m going to be shelling my hard earned(ish) cash. Overall, the $4.99 is a bit steep compared to other games, but worth it. At a slightly lower price, it would definitely be a 5-star ‘must have’ game. Try out the free version first to find out if you enjoy the game.

Touch Hockey: FS5

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; $0.99; Limited Free Version

Playing this game brings back memories of being in an arcade and playing air hockey with my buddies. There really isn’t too much to say about Touch Hockey: FS5, as it is quite simple and intuitive. The gameplay is smooth and very responsive. The friends feature, where you can play a friend over WiFi, is very addictive.

The only problem is that in single-player mode the AI is way too easy, so unless you have a friend to play against over WiFi, the game becomes very boring very quickly. The only difference between the free version and paid version is the removal of ads, which for most won’t justify the purchase price as the ads are not very intrusive.

Homerun Battle 3D

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; $4.99

Homerun Battle 3D, previously known as Baseball Slugger, is a homerun. The batting controls are perfect and there is so much replay value with the online challenges. The graphics are clear and the stadium rendering excellent – it certainly looks and plays better than Wii Baseball. This has quickly become one of my favorite iPhone/iPod Touch games available today.

My only gripe is how, when playing alone, the computer can throw six 80 MPH fastballs in a row, and then come with a 104 MPH slider. That’s ridiculous. Other than that, this game is a must have for anyone looking for a casual and fun game.

Tiger Woods PGA Tour by EA Sports

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; $4.99

Like Tiger Woods, this game is a winner. It becomes apparently from early on that EA Sports has spent a lot of time developing and refining this game to mimic the classic console experience. While many games use a lot of the iPhone’s features simply for novelty sake, EA makes sure to use them to the users advantage.

The game offers actual PGA courses to play on, different difficulty levels, and upgradeable equipment and abilities. The graphics are as good as they get, the gameplay is on par with any other game out there, and replay value is high, especially for fans of golf. An online multiplayer would have seen this game receive an off-the-charts rating, and I hope we see that feature soon. This game is definitely a must have for anyone with either an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

Slope Rider

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; $2.99; Limited Free Version

Based on the Mac game, Slope Rider was re-engineered to work on the iPhone/iPod Touch. While the game has crisp graphics and a good interface, there is nothing which truly stands out. You can either race via the alpine tracks, or do tricks via the freestyle courses. There are a multitude of tricks to master which are combined through the use of grabs, flips, and turns, which will in turn increase your points.

There is no multiplayer, and the only way to gauge how good you are is to check the global leaderboard. For this game, I would definitely recommend saving your three dollars for one of the other games on this list, and just downloading the free version.

Aqua Moto Racing

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; $3.99; Limited Free Version

If you blinked during the Apple commercial then you might not have seen this game. Aqua Moto Racing brings back memories of Nintendo 64’s Wave Race, which is definitely a good thing. There are 18 different tracks to race from, and you are able to race these in reversed mode as well, which adds to the replayability of the game.

While this game doesn’t have true multiplayer functionality, it does offer ghost mode. Ghost mode lets you race against the times of those who have made the global leaderboard. While this game isn’t on par with some of the other stellar apps on this list, it is definitely worth the free test drive, especially for those nostalgic for the old Wave Race.

Finger Foos

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; FREE

On the Apple Ad, Finger Foos seems really cool and fun, but it really isn’t – it is terrible. The game is ridiculously simple and requires absolutely no skill whatsoever. The technology behind it is slick as you can see in the commercial, but the game just isn’t very fun.

It is a very very poor version of Touch Hockey: FS5, but does have the benefit of allowing more players to compete at once. It is a free game, so try it out yourselves to find out just how terrible it is and how misleading the ads can be.

2XL Supercros

TechCrunch Rating:

AppStore: Rated 4+; $7.99; Limited Free Version

If a game developer charges $8 for a game, it better be a very good one, especially since that price point is at the top end for games and it is the most expensive game on this list. 2XL Games, the developers of 2XL Supercross did not disappoint. This game has everything: the graphics are crystal-clear, the sounds of the engines are life-like, and the physics of the game are nearly perfect. A player can customize the look of his rider, ride in either a 125cc, 250cc, or 450cc bike, and race from four different camera views.

The controls take a little while to get used to, but once you get them, the game is a lot of fun. And if you don’t like the preset controls, no worries, as the game has eight different control configurations. This is another must have for any game enthusiast. Best of all, it has a free version to test-drive.

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Review: Best New iPod and iPhone AppStore Games

Social gaming startup Zynga is seeing some impressive traction. It now boats 129 million monthly active users across its portfolio of more than 30 games, according to both Inside Facebook’s AppData(see chart) and Developer Analytics. That’s up from about 50 million three months ago, and 30 million in April.

Zynga’s most popular games are FarmVille (the most popular game on Facebook with 50 million cumulative players), Mafia Wars (the second most popular game on Facebook with 25 million), Zynga Poker, and YoVille. The majority of Zynga’s users play its games on Facebook, but it also has games Bebo, Hi5, MySapce, and Friendster.

Heere are some fun stats about each of its top games:

FarmVille—sort of like a Sim Farm, where you grow your own crops and manage a farm, FarmVille users have built more than 40 million virtual farms (which is 20 times more than actually exist in the U.S.). Players buy 500,000 virtual tractors a day in the game.

Mafia Wars —Every month, 140 million “jobs” are done by aspiring cappos in this game.

Zynga Poker—This used to be calledd Texas Hold’Em. Every day about 150 million hands are dealt (more than ten times as many as are dealt on an averag day in Las Vegas), and on there are usually 250,000 concurrent players, so you can always find a game.

YoVille—A game where you furnish a virtual apartment, buy pets, and eat funnel cakes. The 17 million residnents of YoVille have bought 10,000 pets and 40,000 funnel cakes since August alone.

As Zynga continues to grow, so does the IPO talk (and the litigation). Its revenues, which is well above nine figures now, comes largely from its virtual currency, as well as ads.

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Zynga Is On A Tear; Claims Nearly 130 Million Social Gamers.

It’s been a long time coming, but it’s almost here: Tapulous is putting the finishing touches on Tap Tap Revenge 3, the next installment of its wildly sucessful iPhone music game. The game, which is best described as a “Guitar Hero for the iPhone”, will feature in-game song purchases, which were finally enabled with the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update in June. If there’s a game ripe to make a killing with these in-game downloads, it’s TTR. Tapulous expects to have the game submitted by the end of August, with general release soon thereafter depending on the App Store’s approval process.

So why does this matter? Tap Tap Revenge and its various spinoffs has been some of the iPhone’s most popular games since the App Store launched last year (in fact, a very similar game was very popular on jailbroken phones before the official store even launched). Gameplay consists of tapping your fingers to a song as colorful bubbles fall down the screen, and newer versions also make use of the phone’s accelerometer so you can shake it to the beat. As with games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, TTR tends to appeal to a very broad audience.

But until now it’s been handicapped by one major obstacle: there was no way for users to pay to download new songs. On console games like Rock Band, in-game purchases have proven very lucrative with gamers regularly plopping down around $2 per song. But the iPhone didn’t allow for this kind of transaction until recently, so Tapulous was forced to sell satellite games like TTR Weezer and TTR Coldplay, which did well but never saw nearly the usage of the main TTR app. Now they’ll be able to license songs from directly inside the flagship app, which means the number of paid downloads will likely skyrocket. It will also likely be easier to get premium artists on the platform, as they will be able to sell a song or two at a time rather than entire albums.

As a teaser, Tapulous has sent us the following frustratingly small screenshot:

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Tapulous’s Cash Cow Tap Tap Revenge 3 Is Almost Here