Ngmoco Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Bungie's Pathways Into Darkness comes back to Mac for free

by Mike Schramm (Apr 9th, 2013)

Back before Halo was the biggest title on Microsoft's Xbox, it was actually planned as a Mac title. That's because Bungie, the game's developer, was actually a Mac game company -- they made a number of really terrific shooters for the Mac, including Marathon (which has since been released on ...

Ngmoco shutting down some titles March 31

by Mike Schramm (Jan 29th, 2013)

Ngmoco announced on its website earlier this week that some of the game maker's biggest iOS titles, including We Rule, Godfinger and Touch Pets Dogs 2, are going to be shut down for good on March 31. The games will be off of Apple's App Store later this week on February 1, so no new users will ...

Neil Young leaves Ngmoco

by Mike Schramm (Oct 26th, 2012)

Well it's the end of an era for one of iOS' first big companies. It was just about four years ago that I posted here in this very space that former EA executive Neil Young (no relation) was going to start up a company called ng:moco, and it was soon after that he published the breakout hit ...

Report: Freeverse co-founders leave the company

by Mike Schramm (Aug 24th, 2012)

Freeverse is a classic name in the Mac gaming field: The New York-based developer was one of the world's biggest indie Mac game developers since long before the App Store existed or the iPhone was announced, releasing big titles like Wingnuts, Horde of Orcs and more. When the iPhone and its ...

Early iOS free-to-play title Eliminate shutting down this month

by Mike Schramm (May 2nd, 2012)

Here's a weird signpost for iOS gaming. Eliminate was one of the first big free-to-play titles on iOS: It was a core title for Ngmoco when first announced a few weeks after in-app purchases were allowed and helped pave the way to the current freemium-as-standard situation on Apple's App Store. ...

Handcircus set to return to iOS with free game based on Okabu

by Mike Schramm (Mar 29th, 2012)

Simon Oliver's Handcircus studio was one of the biggest winners in the early days of the App Store. His game Rolando was originally published by Ngmoco back before the company went completely bonkers with social and free-to-play casual games. After Rolando 2 sort of sputtered out into the ...

EA staff leaves for Ngmoco Sweden

by Mike Schramm (Jan 3rd, 2012)

A few more Electronic Arts employees have jumped ship for Ngmoco's newest studio, in Sweden. After Ben Cousins (who formerly worked at EA's "EAsy" division) left to form Ngmoco Sweden, he's apparently been building a wishlist of various developers, and now he's grabbed three more, this time ...

Ngmoco acquires Lionside, maker of sports games on Facebook

by Michael Grothaus (Sep 15th, 2011)

iPhone mobile game publisher Ngmoco has confirmed that it has acquired Lionside, the San Fransisco-based maker of social networking sports games on Facebook. Ngmoco is the maker of over 20 popular iPhone games, including Rolando and Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid. There's no word on ...

Ngmoco hires Ben Cousins, creates ngmoco Sweden

by Mike Schramm (Jun 21st, 2011)

Ngmoco has picked up former EA developer Ben Cousins, the man behind much of that company's free-to-play services at the EAsy division. He will establish a new studio under ngmoco called ngmoco Sweden, which will create games and content using ngmoco's (and parent company DeNA's) services and ...

Rolando and Rolando 2 updated with Retina Display, on sale now

by Mike Schramm (Apr 1st, 2011)

Ngmoco has surprised us with some updates. Rolando and its sequel Rolando 2 have both been updated for the iPhone 4's Retina Display and have had a few bug issues fixed. To celebrate the update, they're both on sale for just US$0.99. Either one of these is a bargain at that price. They're both ...

Interview: Ngmoco's We Rule after a year on the App Store

by Mike Schramm (Mar 19th, 2011)

Ngmoco's We Rule has arguably changed the App Store since its release. Before We Rule, the App Store was generally based on a rather traditional gaming model -- developers released games for a price, and customers paid or didn't pay based on that price. But with We Rule, Ngmoco (as outlined by ...

Two new titles released by Ngmoco, Adventure Bay and Star Wars: Imperial Academy

by Mike Schramm (Dec 6th, 2010)

Neil Young and his company Ngmoco are running out of time to get all twenty new freemium products out that were promised earlier this year, but it looks like they're going to make a run at it anyway. Over the past weekend, Ngmoco released two brand new freemium titles on the US App Store. First up ...

Deal documents show Ngmoco's 50 million downloads, $10m losses in 2009

by Mike Schramm (Oct 13th, 2010)

Stuart Dredge of MobileEntertainment did some digging into the paperwork behind the Ngmoco sale, and came back with some interesting figures about the company's financials. Turns out that rumored $403 million purchase price is true -- kind of. The deal includes a $100 million bonus, if Ngmoco keeps ...

Japanese game giant DeNA buys Ngmoco for $400M

by Dave Caolo (Oct 12th, 2010)

Japanese gaming company DeNA has announced plans to purchase Ngmoco for a cool US$400 million. This purchase sets quite a precedent as it represents one of the highest amounts ever paid for an iPhone application development firm. DeNA sees the mobile social gaming market heating up rapidly. The ...

Freeverse releases Hordes of Orcs 2 for OS X and Windows

by Mike Schramm (Oct 5th, 2010)

When up-and-coming iPhone company Ngmoco bought old-school Mac game developer Freeverse, one of the big worries was whether the developer would continue to program games for the Mac. But worry not -- Freeverse has released a sequel to its old Hordes of Orcs 3D tower defense game, and it's available ...