Burlingame, Calif. -- Alex St. John cofounded online gaming outfit WildTangent in 1998. The company pioneered micro-currency payment systems in which players use real dollars to pay for virtual gold coins for game playing; the other option: opt-in to watching advertisements. In December St. John jumped to the chief technology officer job at Hi5, a social networking Web site that has been more successful in Latin America, Europe and Asia than in the U.S., where it ranks below Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Classmates.com.
He believes gaming is moving to social networks, and that this means Microsoft ( MSFT - news - people ) and Nintendo ( NTDOY.PK - news - people ) won't release new versions of their game consoles. Microsoft in June debuted Project Natal, a motion controller for the Xbox, which could be a way to extend the shelf life of the console. Forbes chatted with St. John to get his view on the convergence of gaming and social networks.
"Limassol-based (Cyprus) indie games publisher ESDigital Games and Moscow-based (Russia) indie games developer Sobaka Studio, are today very proud and glad to announce that they have just released the "Full Act 2" update for their fast-paced twin-stick shooter “REMEDIUM” (the said update is available right now for PC via Steam and EGS)." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
"The Barcelona-based (Spain) indie games publisher Abylight Studios and indie games developer Abylight Barcelona (the award-winning studio behind “One Military Camp”), today announced with great happiness and excitement that they have just released a playable demo for their upcoming mythical city building/strategy game “CITADELUM” (the said demo is available right now for PC via Steam EA)." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
"The Oceanside-based (CA, the US) indie games publisher V Publishing and Seattle-based (WA, the US) indie games developer Bad Ridge Games, are today very proud and glad to announce that their medieval fantasy RPG/life-sim adventure "Mirthwood", is coming to PC via Steam in Q3 2024." - Jonas Ek, TGG.
