14 DAY TRIAL // PopCap has always pushed the various iterations of Bejeweled as being the biggest successes of the casual game company. Now, it is shifting the weight of the promotional power to the Peggle franchise, launching an event called Peggle Fever that is set to last three months, until June, and is designed to celebrate the fact that the game is arriving on a host of new platforms.
The first to arrive is Peggle Dual Shot, which is destined for the Nintendo DS. The game costs 29.95 dollars and is set to adapt the Peggle mechanics for the dual screen and touch based capabilities of the Nintendo handheld. Just one month later, in April, Peggle should arrive on the Xbox Live Arcade service from Microsoft as part of the PopCap Arcade Volume 2. Finally, in May, Peggle is set to come on all the smartphones powered by Google Android. PopCap says that a new, free and online level pack for Peggle Nights has been made available.
The Peggle Fever promotion takes place on PopCap’s official website. The company says that participants can get “daily giveaways of games and merchandise, free access to the new bonus level pack for Peggle Nights, and more”. There's also the Peggle Art Contest, where you can design a piece of art that will go into the next game in the series to win trips to PopCap’s headquarter (in Seattle) and money prizes.
Jason Kapalka, PopCap cofounder and Chief Creative Officer, commented that “Peggle is a pretty special little game, and it deserves all the attention to detail and high touch polish we’ve given it. We’ve gone beyond just porting Peggle and have really opened up new territory for the game with the iPhone’s input and control mechanisms and by partnering with Q Entertainment on the development of Peggle Dual Shot for Nintendo DS. Add to that the cool multiplayer modes in the Xbox 360 and XBLA versions, and these are really adaptations of the game designed to tap the unique aspects of each respective device and service."
PopCap says that Peggle and Peggle Nights have been downloaded 45 million times until now, which translates into a lot of sales.