ngmoco, maker of such free-to-play (with in-app purchases) game hits like Touch Pets and Eliminate has just raised a cool $25 million in funding and bought long time Mac and iPhone developer Freeverse of Skee-Ball and Flick Fishing fame. Techcrunch spoke to ngmoco CEO, Neil Young who said it was all about scale and acceleration:

He expects ngmoco to put out about about 20 new games this year, and the newly-acquired Freeverse team to nearly match that.

In addition to rolling out wave after wave of new iPhone games, Young also plans to open up an SDK to ngmoco’s Plus+ system so that other developers can more easily tap into it.

We just look forward to Eliminate-ing some Skee-Ball’ers in crossover action! But the question we have for you is this — do you like the free-to-play with in-app purchases model? (i.e. you get the game for free but can buy food or energy or power-ups or whatever inside the game). And how do you feel about all of ngmoco — and now all of Freeverse’s games going that way?

One of the many, many “great unknowns” of Apple’s iPhone App Store is how the top-grossing list is calculated, specifically whether or not it factors in revenue from in-app purchases. While we could theoretically wait and see if, now that they too can use in-app purchase, a free app makes its way up the list, the folks at Freeverse wanted an answer now. And they think they’ve found it:

Top Grossing Freeverse Apps are Skee-Ball (#17), Flick Fishing (#97), and Top Gun. Now, interestingly, the Top Paid Apps Chart lists Top Gun as #60 and Flick Fishing as #72. How does this happen? The games are priced the same…but Flick Fishing features DLC. This leads us to conclude that the Top Grossing Apps list seems to include In-App Purchases in its calculations.

What if anything does this mean for developers? Will they be able to land on the Top Free and Top Grossing lists at the same time now? And so what if they do?

Interesting times…

[via Daring Fireball]

Freeverse Software, one of those Mac game developers still kickin’, has developed a racing game called Wingnuts Moto Racer for the iPhone. Freeverse is known for their bizarre, offbeat games that appeal to those looking for a hilarious joyride.

As such, they would have loved to give you a preview of the game but due to their NDA they’re forced to edit some portions of their preview detailing the specifics of the game.

So is the preview much ado about nothing? I mean there aren’t any actual in-game screenshots just artwork. The controls aren’t specifically defined rather described by an intern. Supposedly, it’s a racing game for the racing enthusiasts and non-racing folks alike. Pick up and play is the idea behind the games they’ll design for the iPhone.

At the very least, it’s a hilarious read from a free-spirited company. Hopefully, they’ll follow through in delivering games with the same fun factor.

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