FIFA 14 on mobiles has apparently also topped free game charts in 148 countries on iOS and is also one of the of the top ten grossing iPhone titles in 155 countries. Though it was expected that the game would be immensely popular – despite this being the first time that FIFA has ever adopted a free to play model – it’s amazing that EA has managed to score not one but two big releases with this model in the past few months alone.

A Windows Phone 8 version will be available “soon” according to EA and will require at least 512 MB of RAM. Stay tuned for more details.

“Five years ahead, yeah, we can probably make credible comments about that. You’ll still be able to buy Xbox One or PS4 new five years from now – unquestionably. There will be tons of content developed for that.

“We’ll have 4K resolution displays on tablets and HMDs, and we’ll have another order of magnitude pretty straightforward on there with Moore’s law. GPUs are great at turning transistors into performance and we’ll have ten times the performance. It means that you can probably run that triple 4K display at double the frame-rate from one GPU. That starts looking pretty impressive.”

Some technologies, especially for displays and networking, were described as “technical freight trains” by Carmack and “going forward whether we’re paying attention to them or not”.

“There’s a trillion dollars in economy pushing these things so a lot of that’s going to keep going, and it’s going to be great to sort of be along for the ride and figuring the kind of interesting systems areas, where there’s a convergence of what becomes possible now, that people wanted before, as the sort of cornerstone of where the real innovation is going to happen.

“We can always turn the cranks on what we’ve already got and always get better, but the insightful things are when you notice something that you hadn’t even thought about and previously dismissed as impossible is now possible and orders of magnitude just sneak up on you like this.”

Predicting things has become much harder now than before though, since as Carmack states you “can’t wrap your head around these six or eight orders of magnitude” that will be occurring in the next few decades. The example of Tron was given, but that could apply to anything from five years ago as well. The next generation holds a lot of promise – we’ll see how the PS4 and Xbox One deliver on the same when they release this month.

In an official post for the same on its Kickstarter page, Harebrained stated, “When Jordan created the original world of Shadowrun, he didn’t predict that people would one day interact with that world on touch-screen computers more powerful than the one that took us to the moon.

“It is extremely gratifying that the enthusiasm for this game setting has stood the test of time and that we are now able to deliver it on mobile devices to a new generation of gamers.”

Shadowrun Returns marks the return of the franchise after the ill-fated remake from FASA Corp. The game was funded through Kickstarter and actually managed to smash its targets fairly quickly. Check out our review here.

Deadman’s Cross will take place in a land of zombies – called Deadmen – as players must hunt them down. The zombies defeated can then be added to the player’s deck in the form of cards (which is actually similar to Square Enix’s Guardian Cross). It will be a free to play title and take place from a 3D perspective. It will also support micro-transactions.

Currently, Deadman’s Cross is slated to be revealed at the upcoming Tokyo Game Show taking place from September 19th to 22nd. It will release for Android and iOS, with the former including iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. Are you excited for yet another card-battling RPG from Square Enix on the mobiles?

The game is actually an HD remake of Prince of Persia 2 released in 1993. Despite being a 2D platformer, the game features 3D environments and players will be able to either use touch-based mechanics for controlling the Prince or by using a virtual joystick. It will also have revamped sound and a more friendly difficulty curve in comparison to the original while still remaining challenging.

Prince of Persia: The Shadow and the Flame is currently retailing for Rs 200 on the Google Play store. It is available on Apple iTunes for Rs 170. As always, make sure to check system requirements before purchasing the game for either platform.

Speaking to IGN, Gibeau stated that, “In the near future, the next wave of tablets and phones will have nearly Xbox 360 or PS3 capabilities in terms of graphics. Some of our engine technology that used to be console-specific now can, with modifications, be able to power games on tablets and on phones in the near future. We’re just getting ready for that.”

It won’t be easy though. “You have to redesign the game. You can’t just bring it over and have a virtual D-pad on the tablet. It doesn’t work. You have to re-architect it around touch, voice, camera. Our teams are having a lot of fun with that, re-imagining an experience on a tablet using the same graphics and assets in some ways, but completely remixing the meal. Same ingredients, completely different meal. That’s kind of the way we think about it.”

Given the upcoming Tegra 4’s power, which is almost roughly half that of the PS3 and Xbox 360, it’ll be interesting to see where the next generation of tablets goes.

Meanwhile, executive producer David Anfossi of Eidos Montreal, who worked on Deus Ex: Human Revolution and the multiplayer component of Tomb Raider, is now the head of the studio. At Square Enix Montreal, assistant director Patrick Naud is now studio head.

All of these changes may or may not be a result of the changes with IO Interactive, but it does reflect Square Enix’s initiative to shake things up in management since former president Yoichi Wada resigned from the company among mounting losses. Despite the failure to meet sales expectations, according to the publishers, both Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montreal delivered a significantly big hit with Tomb Raider.

Square Enix Montreal will also now focus on creating smartphone and tablet games, with a Hitman game in the works for the same.

“Breakout successes of numerous games including Clash of Clans, Candy Crush Saga, and Angry Birds gathered strong interest from the large pool of developers who had found themselves out of traditional gaming jobs as a result of industry contraction.

“We will eventually be operating too far outside of supply and demand without consequence. Market shifts can be unpredictable, only in the sense of when they occur, not if. Independent developers must hedge themselves against market shifts by assessing all available platforms, both current and future.”

He states that independent developers especially cannot “afford to operate with blinders on” and “should be looking across every platform while they think about new game development. Just like how the PC industry changed, consoles are changing too and there are more opportunities than ever before to make great games that can also make great money.”