Inside Social Games

Nokia shutting down N-Gage — The mobile gaming service will be folded into Nokia’s Ovi app store. This is after the handset manufacturer spent millions on building and promoting it. A complex developer platform and competition from the iPhone contributed to its demise, PaidContent details.

The history of virtual farming — Ever wondered where FarmVille came from? Read about the contested history of the genre in Asia, in this fascinating write-up on VentureBeat. One fascinating anecdote is that vegetable-stealing is the single most popular feature in some Chinese version of the game. Perhaps the English-language versions of the game should add that?

PlaySpan announces Nickelodeon deal — Television channel Nickelodeon’s online gaming component, the Nickelodeon Kids and Family Virtual Worlds Group, is going to be using PlaySpan’s payment services. Nickelodeon’s virtual currency, NeoCash, will be available for purchase using 80 payment methods, through PlaySpan subsidiary PayByCash.

Viximo launches new version of its virtual economy tools — These include virtual currency management, analytics, micro-transaction payments and other features. The company also announced a partnership with social network Zorpia.

New Offerpal numbers — The payments company has turned two, and says it has reached more than 160 million users, issued 730 million virtual points, including payments to users in 190 countries and offers in more than 80 countries.

Managing your virtual economy — Want to learn how? Live Gamer chief technology officer William Grosso explains the components in this slide deck he presented at the Virtual Goods Summit earlier this week.