Inside Social Games

Twitter and Facebook coming to Xbox 360 this week — Microsoft’s console is getting more social on November 17, when the two social services launch as a software download. You’ll be able to do things like access Facebook and Twitter from within the machine. Sony’s Playstation 3 is also getting Facebook integration, it appears.

Xbox 360 console game Assassin’s Creed gets virtual goods — You can now buy outfits from the game in the Xbox Live Marketplace using Microsoft Points. Ubisoft’s Italian Renaissance first-person action game is the latest to appear in the virtual store and use Microsoft’s virtual currency to make money.

Social gaming so big it’s starting to get billboards on 101 — The main highway running down the San Francisco Peninsula is lined with billboards, making for some prime offline Silicon Valley advertising. Hot, or at least well-funded, tech companies use the space to make statements — Google has run math puzzles, for example. So what does Zynga have? So the ad is so minimalist that there are no words, just the picture of the company’s namesake, the dog Zinga. Via Hiten Shah.

Apple hiring engineer, potentially for in-house games — “The interactive media group is looking for a skilled software engineer who wants to work as part of a small highly motivated team to work on interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch,” according to the listing. “The position on the team is to help design and implement interactive multimedia experiences on the iPhone and iPod Touch.”

China’s Tencent brings in even more money — The company reported revenue of $493 million an increase of 17% quarter-over-quarter and 66.4% year-over-year. Virtual goods revenue made up $384 million and mobile “value-added” services brought in $65.3 million. The rest was ads. More on Virtual Goods News.

Companies that “mine gold” in World of Warcraft are advertising with virtual corpses — MMOP.com and others are creating multiple accounts, then killing off those characters to align their bodies to spell out company URLs. Clever, but we have to wonder how game-maker Activision/Blizzard feels about it. Image, and more, via Virtual Economics.

Vivity gets into social gaming platform services — The 3D virtual world company is offering features it has already built itself to social game developers. These include “virtual economy management, content management, points and leveling, social features (e.g., badging, gifting, emoting), chat and friends lists, social network integration, analytics and many more,” according to the company blog.

Social Gaming Network readies Skies of Glory — VentureBeat has an early look at the iPhone/iPod Touch multiplayer fighter game, in the video below. As you might expect, it is free to play and includes virtual goods, in the form of items like better planes.