PocketGamer.biz Week That Was: PR tips, media corruption and location-based overload

At the start of 2012, PocketGamer.biz ran a series of interviews with location-based game developers.

This week, we've revisited the topic, canvassing another set of location-based studios for their assessments of the current state of the genre.

Massive Damage CEO Ken Seto believes that "we're only scratching the surface in terms of how we can effectively use location."

However, location-based gaming is fairly unique in that it has to ask its players for permission to activate its most compelling feature. This is a significant hurdle, but one that's slowly being overcome, according to Seto.

"People are less hesitant to use location-based games and apps. So many other apps are using location, that it's become common-place to see that 'use your location' prompt, and people are now a lot more savvy and accepting."

Red Robot Labs' chief product officer Pete Hawley agreed.

"I think for a location game to hit true mass market, top grossing iOS standards, it would have to be a very simple, delightful game that removed any fears around revealing your location to publishers or other players. "

"That day will come," he concluded. But enough thinking of the future – let's turn our gaze to the past instead, as we move on to our bite-sized overview of the last seven days' worth of news.

• RIM schedules a series of worldwide BlackBerry 10 'launch events' for 30 January 2013.
• Mere weeks after the global launch of Windows 8, the head of Microsoft's Windows division Steven Sinofsky announces he's leaving the company.
• Due to a trademark claim from a German board game company, Apple is reportedly asking the creators of any iOS app with the word 'Memory' in its title to either rename their app or pull it from the Store.
• GREE adds HTML5 compatibility to its platform, announcing it will roll out the functionality via an open beta set to start in November 2012.
• Unity Technologies officially launches the latest version of its multiplatform games engine – Unity 4.0

• Rovio suggests it's looking to generate more than half of its annual revenues from the sale of physical goods within a few years.
• 22Cans begins accepting donations for its Android and iOS experiment Curiosity, apparently in response to 'popular demand.'
• In this week's edition of the PocketGamer.biz Charticle, we take a look at the use of the Star Wars license in mobile gaming – its shaky past, avian present and Disneyfied future.
• PocketGamer.biz contributor Zoya Street analyses the monetisation mechanics at work in NimbleBits' Pocket Planes.

• Despite reports of an Apple crackdown on incentivised installs, Tapjoy CEO Mihir Shah insists this isn't the case, claiming that Apple "approves hundreds of apps that integrate and leverage Tapjoy" each week...
• But one of Tapjoy's key partners, Glu Mobile, is clearly under the impression that this crackdown is very much in effect, and expects to lose around $7 million a year as a result.
• Kontagent announces that its suite of intelligence tools will enable mobile developers to track their campaigns through Facebook's mobile app install ads.

• Is games journalism a hotbed of corruption? The PocketGamer.biz mobile gaming mavens discuss their experiences of dealing with the gaming media.
• As US publisher Majesco shifts from games retail to digital distribution, VP Stephen Saiz explains the company's plan to release 10-12 mobile titles in 2013.
• In his regular PocketGamer.biz guest column, Applifier evangelist Oscar Clark argues that "the success of a game is ultimate down to the love players have for the brand."
• Glenn Corpes gives PocketGamer.biz the inside story behind the making of Topia World Builder. http://www.pocketgamer.biz/r/PG.Biz/Topia/feature.asp?c=46562
• PocketGamer.biz editor at large Jon Jordan outlines nine tips and tricks to ensure your mobile game gets the best possible PR.

• We're still only scratching the surface of location-based gaming, reckons Massive Damage's Ken Seto.
• We're rendering the real world in 3D, says Red Robot's Hawley.
• The future's not about location, it's about context and location, says Gbanga's Rafael Morgan.
• Game worlds built around location data will be mind blowing, says Grey Area's Vesterinen.
• Location-based games aren't about location, but ownership, reckons PerBlue's Justin Beck.

• Speaking at the Social Gaming Summit 2012, Facebook's Owen O'Donoghue explains that the platform's future gaming growth will be defined by mobile.
• Gamesbrief founder Nicholas Lovell argues that developers need to "find the fun," and that virality is dead and buried.
• Down the hall at the Smartphone & Tablet Games Summit 2012, an industry panel debates the current state of games on HTML5, and reach some wildly different conclusions.
• Later, as part of a panel discussion multi-platform monetisation, Koolbit CEO Gerard Cunningham declares that the 'golden age' of low-cost user acquisition is over.

To catch up on all of PocketGamer.biz's coverage from these co-located events, simply click through for The Social Games Summit and the Smartphone & Tablet Gaming Summit.