News and Digital Media Stories

Candy Crush Saga players spent £865m on the game in 2014 alone

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/feb/13/candy-crush-saga-players-855m-2014

This article is about the way in which the game Candy Crush, has meant people investing a total of £869 million on the game. 

- Quarterly spending on mobile game Candy Crush Saga fell steadily over the course of 2014, but its players still spent $1.33bn (£865.2m) on in-app purchases for the sweet-swapping hit.

- Analysis by the Guardian of publisher King’s latest financial results, as well as previous filings, reveals that Candy Crush Saga’s “gross bookings” – the term used to cover spending by players – totalled $1.04bn in the second half of 2013.

- That means $2.37bn of Candy Crush spending over the 18-month period. King did not separate out Candy Crush and non-Candy Crush revenues before that point, but with the game having launched in 2012, it’s almost certainly past $3bn of lifetime spending.

- In terms of gross bookings, Candy Crush Saga peaked some time ago. Analysis of King’s financial filings, including presentations breaking out its non-Candy-Crush gross bookings, reveals a high point of $551m for that game alone in the third quarter of 2013.

- It’s been downhill ever since: $493m of player spending in the final quarter of 2013, then $429.5m, $360.5m, $277.4m and $263.8m in the four quarters of 2014. Even so, it remains one of the most lucrative mobile games in the world.

In my opinion, this article is very interesting as it shows how some people aren't using there money wisely and are spending it on useless things. Such as these applications.

1983 to today: a history of mobile apps

http://www.theguardian.com/media-network/2015/feb/13/history-mobile-apps-future-interactive-timeline 

This article shows the way in which developments of applications have occured and where it is going, plus shows an interactive timeline of the history of apps.

- The old photos show a young man, white shirt rolled at the sleeves and wearing a small bow tie, waving his arms excitedly as he gave a conference speech in Aspen in the summer of 1983.

- Through the addictively simple game Snake on the Nokia 6110 phone, to the first 500 apps in the Apple App Store when it made its debut in July 2008.