A tile-matching video game is a type of puzzle video game where the player manipulates tiles in order to make them disappear according to a matching criterion. In many tile-matching games, that criterion is to place a given number of tiles of the same type so that they adjoin each other. That number is often three, and these games are called match-three games .
102-393: Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play tile-matching video game released by King on April 12, 2012, originally for Facebook ; other versions for iOS , Android , Windows Phone , and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game Candy Crush . In the game, players complete levels by swapping colored pieces of candy on a game board to make a match of three or more of
204-462: A Bejeweled -like tile-matching game, Puzzle Quest added elements of a computer role-playing game atop this. The player would take turns against a computer opponent, making matches on a common game board, with the types of tiles matched representing role-playing game elements like attacks, defense, and magic which the player used to battle their current enemy, the larger game component had the player improve their character and obtain gear that improved
306-565: A board game . The game was first released for Facebook in April 2012, at the time featuring only 65 levels. The game quickly gained popularity, gaining more than 4 million players within a few weeks of release. King later released mobile versions for iOS and Android that same year, adding a feature that allowed mobile users to synchronize their progress with the Facebook version. Knutsson stated that at that time, with Candy Crush Saga as popular as it
408-456: A freemium model; while it can be played completely through without spending money, players can buy special actions to help clear more difficult boards, from which King makes its revenues—at its peak, the company was reportedly earning almost $ 1 million per day. Around 2014, over 93 million people were playing Candy Crush Saga , while revenue over a three-month period as reported by King was over $ 493 million. Five years after its release on mobile,
510-549: A network-attached storage system, and connect to that storage system through an app. iTunes includes sound processing features, such as equalization , "sound enhancement" and crossfade . There is also a feature called Sound Check , which normalizes the playback volume of all songs in the library to the same level. Introduced on April 28, 2003, The iTunes Music Store allows users to buy and download songs, with 200,000 tracks available at launch. In its first week, customers bought more than one million songs. Music purchased
612-474: A daily basis; the game had a daily revenue of $ 633,000 from the United States section of the iOS App Store alone. By 2014, the game had over 245 million active players each month but has since dropped off, with that count falling to around 166 million by 2016. It again rose back to 293 million active monthly players by November 2017. Though initially released with advertising to help with revenue, King removed
714-476: A deal with Microsoft to automatically install/reinstall the game on all new computers with then latest Windows operating system and already sold devices that had been upgraded to Windows 10 Home , even before Microsoft acquired King's parent company Activision Blizzard in October 2023. Candy Crush Saga is considered to be an addictive game as it uses a compulsion loop that provides pleasurable reinforcement
816-476: A dedicated section for apps rather than a separate app. In September 2017, Apple updated iTunes to version 12.7, removing the App Store section in the process. iTunes 12.6.3 was released the following month, retaining App Store functionality, with 9to5Mac noting that the secondary release was positioned by Apple as "necessary for some businesses performing internal app deployments". In May 2007, Apple announced
918-477: A different challenge to the user, such as removing jelly on tiles or clearing candies in a fixed number of moves to bring special ingredients to the bottom of the board. Boards have a number of different configurations and may include special spaces that have their own unique rules, such as spaces covered with jelly that must be cleared by making a match on that space. If the player meets the level's goal, they will be given stars based on their score and can proceed onto
1020-399: A few hundred other games they had designed for the portal. Candy Crush ' s concept had been based on an early game King made, Miner Speed , that borrowed gameplay elements from Bejeweled . Candy Crush added new animations for the candies, and expressive paper doll -like characters that helped to make the game one of five most popular ones on the site by 2012. At that point, the game
1122-451: A genre like Christmas music , songs that have not been played recently, or songs the user has listened to the most in a time period. Through a "Home Sharing" feature, users can share their iTunes library wirelessly. Computer firewalls must allow network traffic, and users must specifically enable sharing in the iTunes preferences menu. iOS applications also exist that can transfer content without Internet. Additionally, users can set up
SECTION 10
#17328761501021224-448: A given point on the board. King , which had made similar tile-matching games for browser-based games, explored a different approach with its first mobile app, Bubble Witch Saga , which had puzzle-oriented gameplay like Puzzle Bobble , but applied finite restrictions on the number of moves the player could take and setting target goals such as score or clearing the board. This enabled them to create numerous levels that could be completed in
1326-432: A great variety of puzzle game experiences. This section discusses a number of these mechanics. Early puzzle games like Tetris were timed – that is, new tiles are continuously added and the player is under pressure to make matches before the board fills up. The rate of tile addition often increased as to make for a more difficult challenge in longer games. Untimed (turn-based) games, in which new tiles are added only after
1428-446: A greater number of similar tiles. In some tile games, when tiles are matched and removed, pieces above them fall to fill the space (as with Bejeweled and Candy Crush Saga ). This creates the potential for additional matches and creating scoring combos, with all subsequent matches scored at higher point values. Some games drop tiles at random, others according to algorithms . In most tile-matching games, new tiles are randomly added to
1530-428: A large drop in players at their game portals within a year. At this point, King started to determine how it could enter the Facebook and the associated mobile game markets, breaking up its web development department to work on Facebook and mobile games in 2010, including bringing several of their existing browser games to those platforms. Most of these existing games were introduced as beta versions to Facebook users, and
1632-607: A live music radio station. In May 2005, video support was introduced to iTunes with the release of iTunes 4.8, though it was limited to bonus features part of album purchases. The following October, Apple introduced iTunes 6, enabling support for purchasing and viewing video content purchased from the iTunes Store . At launch, the store offered popular shows from the ABC network, including Desperate Housewives and Lost , along with Disney Channel series That's So Raven and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody . CEO Steve Jobs told
1734-459: A music library. Each track has attributes, called metadata , that can be edited by the user, including changing the name of the artist, album, and genre, year of release, artwork, among other additional settings. The software supports importing digital audio tracks that can then be transferred to iOS devices, as well as supporting ripping content from CDs. iTunes supports WAV , AIFF , Apple Lossless , AAC , and MP3 audio formats. It uses
1836-479: A new type of tile-matching game based on creating games broken up into levels and establishing goals to reach within a limited number of moves. This "saga" approach also extended to other genres of mobile games. The second innovation in tile-matching games was the incorporation of their mechanic into other genres. One of the first such games was Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords released in 2008. While based on
1938-429: A playlist, setting criteria such as date and number of times listened to. Apple is credited for being the major catalyst behind the early growth of podcasting. On July 10, 2008, Apple introduced native mobile apps for its iOS operating system. On iOS, a dedicated App Store application served as the storefront for browsing, downloading, updating, and otherwise managing applications, whereas iTunes on computers had
2040-424: A short time, making the game ideal for mobile players, and apply a microtransaction model to provide players temporary boosts and power-ups for more difficult levels. This approach proved highly successful and King reused it for the tile-matching game Candy Crush Saga in 2012, itself which was inspired by Bejeweled . Candy Crush Saga became one of the most financially successful mobile games , and established
2142-419: A simpler "Up Next" feature that notably lost some of "iTunes DJ"'s functionality. Introduced in iTunes 8 in 2008, " Genius " can automatically generate a playlist of songs from the user's library that "go great together". "Genius" transmits information about the user's library to Apple anonymously, and evolves over time to enhance its recommendation system. It can also suggest purchases to fill out "holes" in
SECTION 20
#17328761501022244-412: A specific color are collected, such as converting a candy on the board to a wrapped candy. This game earned $ 5.6 million in its first month, and $ 10 million by June 2019. CBS produced a live-action Candy Crush game show in partnership with King that premiered on July 9, 2017. It was an hour-long competition among several two-person teams using interactive games that are based on Candy Crush . The show
2346-589: A survey referred to by Juul, tile-matching games were the second most popular game type in 2004 and by far the most popular in 2005. After that, their popularity declined: they were the fourth most popular of several genres in 2006 and 2007, and in 2008 a games publisher referred to them as a "niche" genre. But as they became well known and therefore assumed to be immediately playable by many people, tile-matching games migrated to other, more ubiquitous distribution channels such as cell phones and smartphones. Despite their commercial popularity, tile-matching games are among
2448-476: A traditional video gaming ethos that demands games be challenging and with complex mechanics. Match-three games are NP-hard when generalized to an n × n {\displaystyle n\times n} playfield and played such that the player knows in advance all the tiles that will appear, with no random chance involved. ITunes iTunes is a media player , media library, and mobile device management utility developed by Apple . It
2550-823: Is also a minor feature in some larger games. Video game researcher Jesper Juul therefore considers tile matching to be a game mechanic , rather than a distinct genre of games. The mechanism of matching game pieces to make them disappear is a feature of many non-digital games, including Mahjong solitaire and Solitaire card games. Video game researcher Jesper Juul traces the history of tile-matching video games back to early puzzle Tetris and Chain Shot! (later known as SameGame ), published in 1984 and 1985, respectively. While both are puzzle games, they differ in important design points such as time pressure, tile manipulation, and solving criteria. While there may have been earlier video games with tile-matching mechanics, Juul stated that
2652-444: Is displayed in users' libraries in columns, including album, artist, genre, composer, and more. Users can enable or disable different columns, as well as change view settings. Introduced in 2004, "Party Shuffle" selected tracks to play randomly from the library, though users could press a button to skip a song and go to the next in the list. The feature was later renamed "iTunes DJ", before being discontinued altogether, replaced by
2754-484: Is extremely important", though this was questioned by security researcher Brian Krebs , who told the publication that "A prominent security researcher warned Apple about this dangerous vulnerability in mid-2008, yet the company waited more than 1,200 days to fix the flaw." iTunes has been repeatedly accused of being bloated as part of Apple's efforts to turn it from a music player to an all-encompassing multimedia platform. Former PC World editor Ed Bott accused
2856-576: Is having the player shoot the tiles onto the board, such as in Plotting and its descendants including Zuma . The first method, which allows only moves that create a match, results in a more strategic, thoughtful style of play, whereas the second method requires hand-eye coordination in addition to pattern recognition skills, and makes for a more hectic style of play. In most tile-matching games, players obtain points for each match. Higher scores are awarded for more difficult matches, such as those involving
2958-431: Is restored every half-hour), or purchase them. Initially, when a player makes a purchase for new lives, they receive five new lives for a specific dollar amount. In a recent update, when a player makes a purchase for new lives, the player receives gold bars, the quantity depending on how much money they spend. Gold bars can be used for new lives, extra moves, boosters or to unlock a new episode. At certain points, primarily at
3060-433: Is to match two, three, or more tiles of the same type, which merges those matched tiles into a single tile with a different value that then can be matched further. For example, in 2048 , players are given random blocks with numbers 2 or 4 on them, and much match two blocks of the same number as to generate new blocks with values in the multiples of 2, with the goal to try to get a block with the value 2048 (2 ) or higher. While
3162-423: Is used to purchase, play, download and organize digital multimedia on personal computers running the macOS and Windows operating systems, and can be used to rip songs from CDs as well as playing content from dynamic, smart playlists . It includes options for sound optimization and wirelessly sharing iTunes libraries. iTunes was announced by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on January 9, 2001. Its original and main focus
Candy Crush Saga - Misplaced Pages Continue
3264-482: The Candy Crush Saga series has received over 2.7 billion downloads, and the game has been one of the highest-grossing and most-played mobile apps in that time frame. As of September 2023, it had reached over $ 20 billion in lifetime revenue. King has since released three related titles— Candy Crush Soda Saga , Candy Crush Jelly Saga and Candy Crush Friends Saga —and most of the company's other mobile titles follow
3366-508: The Game Boy version of Tetris with the Game Boy handheld system upon its North American and European releases in 1989. The game helped to sell the handheld system, making it a killer application , and sold over 35 million copies over the Game Boy's lifetime. As it drew in players that normally did not play video games, Tetris is considered one of the first casual games . The popularity of
3468-509: The Gracenote music database to provide track name listings for audio CDs. When users rip content from a CD, iTunes attempts to match songs to the Gracenote service. For self-published CDs, or those from obscure record labels , iTunes would normally only list tracks as numbered entries ("Track 1" and "Track 2") on an unnamed album by an unknown artist, requiring manual input of data. File metadata
3570-508: The iOS App Store . Since the release of iOS 5 in 2011, these devices have become less dependent on iTunes, though it can still be used to back up their contents. Though well received in its early years, iTunes received increasing criticism for a bloated user experience, which incorporated features beyond its original focus on music. Beginning with Macs running macOS Catalina , iTunes was replaced by separate apps, namely Music , Podcasts , and TV , with Finder and Apple Devices taking over
3672-436: The iTunes Store , and new audio formats. Apple released iTunes for Windows on October 16, 2003. On April 26, 2018, iTunes was released on Microsoft Store for Windows 10 , primarily to allow it to be installed on Windows 10 devices configured to only allow installation of software from Microsoft Store. Unlike Windows versions for other platforms, it is more self-contained due to technical requirements for distribution on
3774-423: The "saga" approach in contrast to typical tile-matching games, where instead of having the game continue through a fixed amount of time or until the player reached an unplayable state, the game was divided into discrete levels that required the player to complete certain goals within a fixed set of moves, and where the next level could only be reached after completing the previous level. These saga elements allowed for
3876-460: The Cloud", in which music purchases were stored on Apple's servers and made available for automatic downloading on new devices. For music the user owns, such as content ripped from CDs, the company introduced "iTunes Match", a feature that can upload content to Apple's servers, match it to its catalog, change the quality to 256 kbit/s AAC format, and make it available to other devices. When iTunes
3978-873: The People's Choice Awards for Favorite Mobile Game 2016. Other nominees were Fruit Ninja , Despicable Me: Minion Rush , Plants vs. Zombies and Temple Run . It was also the winner of 9th International Mobile Gaming Awards for the Best Social Game. King filed for applications for trademarks on the word "candy" in January 2013 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office , which became publicly known in January 2014. News of these pending trademarks raised concerns from other developers, who feared that King would use their trademark to intimidate smaller developers. In response to this criticism, King decided not to pursue
4080-554: The ability to follow other users. Ping was discontinued in September 2012. The Telegraph reported in November 2011 that Apple had been aware of a security vulnerability since 2008 that would let unauthorized third parties install "updates" to users' iTunes software. Apple fixed the issue before the Telegraph ' s report and told the media that "The security and privacy of our users
4182-455: The advertising in 2013 and solely has earned money from the game in the form of in-app purchases. Only a small percentage of the player base has purchased in-game items, up to around 4%, but this has led to millions of dollars in monthly revenue for King. In 2014, Candy Crush Saga players spent over $ 1.33 billion on in-app purchases. This is a decline from the previous year since in the second half of 2013 players spent over $ 1.04 billion. By 2015,
Candy Crush Saga - Misplaced Pages Continue
4284-481: The app icon, the art for the candy pieces, and sound effects like the level-completion "Sweet!". While details were not given, Ransom stated that he had "amicably" resolved the matter with King by April of that year. During this same period, it was discovered that King had applied for a trademark on the word "saga", and they had taken action against Stoic, the developers of The Banner Saga ; King had attempted to block Stoic's registration of "The Banner Saga", and after
4386-438: The basics of social gameplay, but did not require the time investment that then-popular titles like Zynga's FarmVille required; players could play just for a few minutes each day through the saga model. The success of Bubble Witch Saga establishing King as a viable developer in this arena, becoming the second-largest developer by daily player count on the Facebook platform by April 2012, trailing only Zynga. Candy Crush Saga
4488-466: The board continuously, either turn by turn or in real time. This may continue indefinitely or for a given period of time or number of turns. The player must continuously remove the newly added tiles through matching. The game may end with a loss when the board is filled with tiles or if there are no more possible matches. It may end with a victory when the player clears the board or reaches a given score. Among downloadable casual video games, according to
4590-415: The board was cleared of all candies of those two colors, and the player gained a few turns of additional matches without needing to balance colors. After this, Odus returned to sleeping and two new colors were randomly selected for the balance. This continued until the player completed the level or ran out of turns as in the main game. Dreamworld levels used a different set of lives from the main game, allowing
4692-476: The board. This may create a new matched set of candies, which is automatically cleared in the same manner. The player scores points for these matches and gains progressively more points for chain reactions (called cascades). Additionally, creating matches of four or more candies will create a special candy that, when matched, can clear a row, column, or other section of the board. The game is split into many levels, which must be completed in sequence. Each level poses
4794-405: The commercial success of both Tetris and Chain Shot! established the popularity of puzzle games, leading to a second generation of influential games – Puzznic , Columns , Dr. Mario and Plotting – which were published in 1989 and 1990. Another early Mahjong-style pair matching game was Shanghai (1986). The popularity of the puzzle genre was further boosted when Nintendo bundled
4896-408: The company used player counts and feedback to determine which of these titles had the most prospect for moving forward, allowing them to focus more intensive development on those titles while dropping the rest, in the style of a rapid prototyping approach. The Facebook platform allowed them to explore expansion of their existing tournament-style games and the ability to include microtransactions within
4998-489: The device management capabilities. This change did not affect iTunes running on Windows or older macOS versions. In February 2024, most features of iTunes for Windows were split into the Apple TV, Music, Podcasts, Books, and Apple Devices apps. When the apps are installed, iTunes is still used for podcasts and audiobooks. SoundJam MP , released by Casady & Greene in 1999, was renamed "iTunes" when Apple purchased it
5100-614: The form of casual games distributed or played over the Internet, notably the Bejeweled series of games. They have remained popular since, with the game Candy Crush Saga becoming the most-played game on Facebook in 2013. Tile-matching games cover a broad range of design elements, mechanics and gameplay experiences. They include purely turn-based games but may also feature arcade -style action elements such as time pressure, shooting or hand-eye coordination . The tile matching mechanic
5202-491: The game being able to be played in a pick-up-and-go manner ideally suited for mobile devices. Tommy Palm, one of the four developers for Candy Crush Saga , stated that the first weekend numbers after the game's mobile release were over ten times greater than the estimates they expected. By January 2013, Candy Crush Saga overtook Zynga's FarmVille 2 as the top-played game on the Facebook platform. King had not planned for Candy Crush Saga to be as popular as it was, expecting
SECTION 50
#17328761501025304-845: The game for combat-related actions. Both Push Panic and Heroes of Kalevala arrived in 2010. In 2011 New Puzzle Bobble was released for iOS while Bubble Safari , Ruby Blast , Gems with Friends and Puzzle & Dragons were first released in 2012. Juice Cubes , Tower of Saviors , Alien Hive , Marvel Puzzle Quest , Jelly Splash and Doctor Who: Legacy were released for mobile devices from 2013 onwards. In 2015 Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle , Ironcast , HuniePop , Hex Frvr and Sailor Moon Drops were all released. By 2016 millions of players were logging into titles such as Gardenscapes: New Acres . The genre continues to appeal to gamers, with numerous titles including Boost Beast (2017), Dr. Mario World , Crystal Crisis (2019), and Royal Match (2020) among
5406-512: The game more accessible to less skilled players. With the introduction of Candy Crush Saga , games with levels featuring limits on the number of moves were introduced. In this, the player may be challenged to achieve a certain score, or match enough tiles of a specific color before running out of turns, or otherwise would have to complete the level again. Tiles may be arranged on a horizontal surface or vertically (that is, stacked atop one another, and dropping down when tiles below are removed). In
5508-527: The game received an average review score of 79/100, indicating generally positive reviews. Ellie Gibson of Eurogamer referred to Candy Crush Saga as one of 2013's Games of the Year. By 2013, Candy Crush Saga had been downloaded more than 500 million times across Facebook, iOS, and Android devices. It was considered the most downloaded app from the Apple App Store, and had at least 6.7 million active users on
5610-476: The game released in January 2014, it issued a cease and desist letter to the developers (King's trademark application was still pending approval at this time). Similar to the CandySwipe situation, Stoic announced in April 2014 that the situation with King had been resolved with both sides coming to an agreement allowing Stoic to continue to use their name. Candy Crush Saga also received criticism when it struck
5712-454: The game to celebrate the milestone of over 1 trillion Candy Crush Saga games having been played. More recently, with the game offered as a free-to-play model, King seeks to provide new content on a weekly or biweekly basis, including time-limited content. Zacconi saw this approach as a means to keep players, who otherwise have not purchased anything, to keep coming back and playing the game. According to review aggregator website Metacritic ,
5814-443: The game to have only a six-month window after which players would move on to a different game, and thus had committed only minimal resources to its ongoing support at launch. Instead, with the game's popularity still high by the end of 2012, King became more serious about supporting the game for the long term, looking into deeper game mechanics, adding more levels, and other methods to extend the game. Since its release, Candy Crush Saga
5916-568: The game's first major expansion, the game added a separate set of levels in the Dreamworld. While levels had the same goals, the players had to balance matches of candies of two randomly selected colors to avoid disrupting the sleeping Odus the Owl; if they failed, the level had to be repeated. If they collected enough matched candies to fill a meter, the game would automatically activate the Moon Struck power:
6018-573: The game, the player solves puzzles so Tiffi (short for Toffette) can solve problems plaguing the residents of the Candy Kingdom. These include tutorial guide Mr. Toffee, whose voice was changed from an over-the-top French accent in the original version of the game into a more modest deep male voice; the Easter Bunny ; the shop owner Mr. Yeti; Odus the owl from Dreamworld levels; the villainous Bubblegum Troll; and many others. In Candy Crush Jelly Saga ,
6120-469: The game. In April 2011, King released its existing portal game Miner Speed as its first cross-platform (Facebook and mobile) game to figure out the transition between Facebook and mobile games for this new direction. King's first major success in this area followed with Bubble Witch Saga , released in October 2011; by January 2012 it has attracted over 10 million players and was one of fastest rising Facebook games at that time. Bubble Witch Saga introduced
6222-636: The game. In December 2013, King entered the Japanese market with a series of television commercials in Japan , and by December 4 it had become the 23rd most downloaded game in Japan on Android devices and number 1 most downloaded from the App Store. It is also the most popular game in the UK of all time. 58% of the players are women, while 46% of the players are of Gen X , though more youths and children play it. Candy Crush Saga won
SECTION 60
#17328761501026324-406: The games with the lowest status among video game enthusiasts, to the point where reviewers have advised gamers not to be ashamed of playing them. This may be because critics consider that there are too many of these games, which differ only slightly from each other. It may also be because, as casual games, tile-matching games are designed to be easily accessible and simple to play, which conflicts with
6426-424: The goal is to create clusters of three or more identical items on a grid, was Shariki (1994). It led directly to the successful Bejeweled (2001), which became a very successful series and inspired many similar games including Zoo Keeper (2003), Big Kahuna Reef (2004), Jewel Quest (2004), and Chuzzle (2005). Later games such as Tidalis (2010) developed the idea further with 20 game modes and
6528-424: The goal of creating the longest possible chain of matching colors. Towards 2010, new trends in tile-matching games appeared. The first was driven by the popularity of mobile games. Prior to 2012, most tile-matching games had no end goal, instead challenging the player to continue as long as possible until the board reached a state where no turn was possible, or, in the case of Tetris , where tiles have filled up past
6630-537: The late 1980s puzzle games continued to bring new titles to the market, generally building on ideas introduced in these early games. Games building on Dr. Mario' s mechanics include Puyo Puyo (1991), Baku Baku Animal (1995) and Puzzle Fighter (1996). Building on the shooting mechanic introduced in Plotting , Dr. Mario also influenced Puzzle Bobble (1994), which in turn inspired Puzz Loop (1998), Hexic and Zuma (2003), and Luxor (2005). Columns
6732-558: The latter case, some games allow moving or rotating new tiles as they fall down from the top of the playing area, as in Tetris or Dr. Mario ; or they may allow only the manipulation of tiles that have already fallen, as in Yoshi's Cookie . Panel de Pon introduced, and Bejeweled popularized the mechanism of tile swapping, in which tiles may be moved by exchanging the position of two adjacent tiles. Another frequently used tile manipulation method
6834-736: The launch of "iTunes U" via the iTunes Store , which delivers university lectures from top U.S. colleges. With iTunes version 12.7 in August 2017, iTunes U collections became a part of the Podcasts app. On June 10, 2020, Apple formally announced that iTunes U would be discontinued at the end of 2021. iTunes was required to activate early iPhone and iPad devices. Beginning with the iPhone 3G in June 2008, activation did not require iTunes, making use of activation at point of sale. Later iPhone models are able to be activated and set-up on their own, without requiring
6936-419: The library. The feature was updated with iTunes 9 in 2009 to offer "Genius Mixes", which generated playlists based on specific music genres. "Smart playlists" are a set of playlists that can be set to automatically filter the library based on a customized list of selection criteria, much like a database query. Multiple criteria can be entered to manage the smart playlist. Selection criteria examples include
7038-427: The match to become jelly-filled, with the goal of making all squares on the gameboard filled with jelly to complete the puzzle. A third sequel, Candy Crush Friends Saga , was released on both iOS and Android in October 2018. Prior to each round, the player may have the ability to select one of the series' characters to assist with the puzzle. Each character has a power that activates after a certain number of candies of
7140-498: The merging mechanic had been part of other video games since as early as Darwin's Dilemma in 1990, the genre saw a boost following the success of Threes on mobile platforms. Tile-matching games that are set in a fictional background are normally based in a "bright and positive" fiction, as opposed to the warlike background of strategy games or the fantasy background of massively multiplayer games. Tile matching game mechanics have been combined with other mechanics to produce
7242-425: The monthly revenue was estimated at $ 120 million, but with declining players purchasing in-game items, down to 2% by 2016, that revenue has dropped to just over $ 53 million per month. Again, by the end of October 2018, the monthly revenue rose to $ 128 million. Five years after its release on mobile, the Candy Crush Saga series has received over 2.73 billion downloads. Its revenue for the quarter ending September 2017
7344-460: The more one plays. The game was investigated by the UK Office of Fair Trading concerning exploitative game mechanics with regards to younger users. In May 2014, a sequel titled Candy Crush Soda Saga was soft launched by King, with a similar design but new gameplay dynamics, such as a soda bottle piece that can shift gravity. On October 20, 2014, the Facebook version of Candy Crush Soda Saga
7446-402: The more recent. Many casual tile matching games continue to be published. Their development is characterized by gradual evolution, where new games makes only small changes, if any, to a formula known from previous games. In the highly competitive market for downloadable casual games, new entries must be familiar enough to appeal to players of earlier games, but innovative enough to differentiate
7548-461: The new game from earlier ones. This leads to developers, according to Juul, "simultaneously trying to out-innovate and out-clone each other". A new style of tile-matching game arose from games like Triple Town (2010), Threes (2014), and 2048 (2014), typically called merge-style games. Here, the player either can place tiles in a limited area, or can manipulate tiles such as sliding all tiles as far as they can move in one direction. The goal
7650-434: The next level. Otherwise, they will lose one life and must try again. If the player runs out of lives, they have to wait for some period of real-world time while their lives regenerate before attempting the level again. Completed levels can be replayed if desired. The game has been expanded with a number of episodes, adding a 15 new levels per episode as well as new gameplay mechanics. Each episode has 15 levels of gameplay. In
7752-514: The next year. The primary developers of the software moved to Apple as part of the acquisition, and simplified SoundJam's user interface, added the ability to burn CDs, and removed its recording feature and skin support. The first version of iTunes, promotionally dubbed "World's Best and Easiest To Use Jukebox Software", was announced on January 9, 2001. Subsequent releases of iTunes often coincided with new hardware devices, and gradually included support for new features, including "smart playlists",
7854-430: The player has made a move, used to be the exception, although the 1985 game Chain Shot! already had an untimed mode. In untimed modes, the player is able to continue to make matches until they reach an unplayable state, in which case the game is considered over. The addition of an untimed mode to Bejeweled! was integral to that game's success, as well as one of its most important influences on subsequent games, as it made
7956-482: The player to switch back and forth between these modes. The Dreamworld is no longer accessible. The game is primarily monetized through in-app purchases (through either a credit card , iTunes credits or Google Play credits); players begin with five "lives", lost whenever a level is failed. This applies to all of King's games. When lives are exhausted, users can either send requests to their Facebook friends for more lives, wait for them to replenish themselves (a life
8058-632: The press that "We're doing for video what we've done for music — we're making it easy and affordable to purchase and download, play on your computer, and take with you on your iPod." In 2008, Apple and select film studios introduced "iTunes Digital Copy", a feature on select DVDs and Blu-ray discs allowing a digital copy in iTunes and associated media players. In June 2005, Apple updated iTunes with support for podcasts . Users can subscribe to podcasts, change update frequency, define how many episodes to download and how many to delete. Similar to songs , "Smart playlists" can be used to control podcasts in
8160-402: The same Saga freemium format. Candy Crush Saga is a "match three" game , where the core gameplay is based on swapping two adjacent candies among several on the gameboard to make a row or column of at least three matching-colored candies. On this match, the matched candies are removed from the board, and candies above them fall into the empty spaces, with new candies appearing from the top of
8262-406: The same color, eliminating those candies from the board and replacing them with new ones, which could potentially create further matches. Matches of four or more candies create unique candies that act as power-ups with larger board-clearing abilities. Boards have various goals that must be completed within a fixed number of moves, such as collecting a specific number of a type of candy. The game uses
8364-438: The start of new "episodes", users must also either purchase or receive a request from at least three friends before they may access the next set of levels. An update meant players waited for only three days to unlock the next episode. Boosters, to make the levels easier, can be bought using in-app purchases. While the game includes freemium content, 97.7% of those playing the game do so for free, while only 2.3% pay. Throughout
8466-514: The store (not installing background helper services such as Bonjour ), and is updated automatically through the store rather than using Apple Software Update . The role of iTunes has been replaced with independent apps, Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, Apple Books, and Apple TV; with iPhone, iPod, and iPad management integrated into the Finder starting with macOS 10.15 Catalina , and appearing as Apple Devices starting with Windows 10 . iTunes features
8568-463: The trademark. The mobile game known as CandySwipe created in 2010, two years prior to the release of Candy Crush Saga , had many similarities that its independent developer Albert Ransom noticed as Candy Crush Saga became more successful. Following news of the "candy" trademark, Ransom issued a statement in February 2014, claiming that King had intentionally copied elements from his own game including
8670-469: The two main characters that the player plays against are the Jelly Queen and Cupcake Carl. Prior to the release of Candy Crush Saga , most of King's games were browser games offered through their website or partner portals such as Yahoo! . This included Candy Crush , a straightforward tile-matching game released in 2011 which King's chief creative officer and co-founder Sebastian Knutsson said came after
8772-511: The use of iTunes. iTunes also allows users to backup and restore the content of their Apple mobile devices, such as music, photos, videos, ringtones and device settings, and restore the firmware of their devices. However, as of iTunes 12.7, apps can no longer be purchased and installed using iTunes. With the release of iTunes 10 in September 2010, Apple announced iTunes Ping, which CEO Steve Jobs described as "social music discovery". It had features reminiscent of Facebook , including profiles and
8874-401: The value of the tiles they matched or created special effects on the tile board, such as removing all tiles of a specific type. Puzzle Quest was very popular and led to numerous games which uses the tile-matching as part of a battle system. While not directly influenced by Puzzle Quest , Puzzle & Dragons in 2012 was another successful mobile title that used the tile-matching part of
8976-453: Was $ 250 million, having gained significant improvement in year-to-year revenues from 2016. It remains one of the top gross-revenue earnings app for mobile in the four years leading up to 2017. By the end of July 2018, the total revenue earned by this game stood at $ 3.91 billion. Candy Crush received particular mention in Hong Kong media, with reports that one in seven Hong Kong citizens plays
9078-650: Was a basic score attack game. Knutsson said, "the first version was three minutes of great gaming, but that three minutes didn't really evolve." Candy Crush , as with several of King's other portal games, featured tournament-style gameplay, where players could spend money to enter competitive tourneys for in-game boosts, which served as one of the main forms of revenue for the company in addition to in-game item sale microtransactions and advertisements. Around 2009, Facebook began to pull in developers, in particular Zynga , to offer social network games that could be built on its fundamental services; for King, this resulted in
9180-491: Was expanded over the years by adding new episodes, each containing a number of new levels. This enabled King to also introduce new gameplay features alongside other game improvements. New features were first tested on King's own portal to see how players there responded and allowed them to tweak these as needed, then push them into the episodes on the Facebook/mobile version. By September 2016, King released its 2000th level for
9282-535: Was first released, it came with support for the Kerbango Internet radio tuner service. In June 2013, the company announced iTunes Radio, a free music streaming service. In June 2015, Apple announced Apple Music, a subscription-based music streaming service, and subsequently integrated iTunes Radio functionality. Music tracks provided by Apple Music via iTunes are available at up to 256 kbit/s AAC fidelity. The Apple Music app also integrates Apple Music 1 ,
9384-549: Was music, with a library offering organization and storage of Mac users' music collections. With the 2003 addition of the iTunes Store for purchasing and downloading digital music, and a Windows version of the program, it became an ubiquitous tool for managing music and configuring other features on Apple's line of iPod media players, which extended to the iPhone and iPad upon their introduction. From 2005 on, Apple expanded its core music features with support for digital video, podcasts , e-books , and mobile apps purchased from
9486-558: Was on Facebook, they knew that they "had to get it right" in the transition process. King had previously discussed the nature of games that kept their state between a PC and mobile version with Fabrication Games, believing this was a necessary trend in the future of gaming, Both recognized several of the difficulties that would have to be addressed to provide both the progress synchronization and gameplay interface between mouse-driven PC computers and touch-driven mobile devices. King found that one issue with transiting Bubble Witch Saga to mobile
9588-592: Was produced by Lionsgate with executive producer Matt Kunitz , and with collaboration by Sebastian Knutsson, the creative developer of the first Candy Crush game. Mario Lopez hosted the show. Four teams play in each episode doing various challenges based on the Candy Crush game, with the winning team earning a guaranteed $ 100,000. The game is featured in Psy 's music video " Gentleman ". Part of The Emoji Movie takes place within Candy Crush Saga . Candy Crush Saga
9690-516: Was protected by FairPlay , an encryption layer referred to as digital rights management (DRM). The use of DRM, which limited devices capable of playing purchased files, sparked efforts to remove the protection mechanism. Eventually, after an open letter to the music industry by CEO Steve Jobs in February 2007, Apple introduced a selection of DRM-free music in the iTunes Store in April 2007, followed by its entire music catalog without DRM in January 2009. In June 2011, Apple announced "iTunes in
9792-617: Was released in 1995 containing a two player competitive game. Sega Swirl for handheld devices was released in 1999. Microsoft bundled Jawbreaker Windows Mobile 2003. Several multiplayer modes, both local and networked, featured in early tile-matching games such as Columns and Dr. Mario and later with TetriNET (1997) and Tetris Worlds (2001). Multiplayer introduced elements of race and competition as players were able to attacks opponents in various ways resulting in more difficult matchmaking for their opponent. The first of what eventually became known as "match-three" games, where
9894-508: Was released worldwide and the mobile app was released in November on the Android and iOS platforms. The app was subsequently made available for Windows 10 and Windows Phone in October 2015. Among other gameplay changes, Candy Crush Soda Saga introduces soda candies that release soda that fill the puzzle board from the bottom up, causing candies to float up to the highest soda level. In September 2015, another sequel named Candy Crush Jelly Saga
9996-421: Was selected as King's next Facebook game based on the popularity of the portal version of Candy Crush . The basic cross-platform framework from Miner Speed were used to craft the foundation of Candy Crush Saga , adding the "saga" elements from Bubble Witch Saga . Initial ideas to expand Candy Crush into Candy Crush Saga were proposed by Knutsson, around 2011, including making the saga map visually look like
10098-500: Was soft-launched in various countries for the Android platform, followed by a worldwide release in January 2016. Initially it was not made available on Facebook unlike previous titles but was released on Android and iOS in May 2016. The Facebook version appears to no longer require Adobe Flash to play. The game introduces jelly-filled squares. Matches made with candies occupying jelly-filled squares will generally cause all squares that were part of
10200-412: Was that the gameplay elements were too small for mobile devices, and aimed to correct that for Candy Crush Saga on mobile. The mobile release delay for Candy Crush Saga was in part due to adding the ability to play the mobile version in an offline mode that would still synchronize once the player returned online. The mobile version helped to boost the popularity of the game, attributed to the nature of
10302-490: Was the basis of a line of development of tile matching games based on shifting or swapping tiles. It includes Yoshi's Cookie (1992) and Panel de Pon (1995), which introduced the swapping mechanic. Puzzled included multiplayer games and was released for the Neo Geo console in the same year. 1994 saw BreakThru! and Gururin published with FlipOut! and Vid Grid released the following year. Hebereke's Popoitto
10404-410: Was used as a challenge theme for an episode of the sixth season of Project Runway All Stars . Tile-matching video game The core challenge of tile-matching games is the identification of patterns on a seemingly chaotic board. Their origins lie in puzzle games from the 1980s such as Tetris , Chain Shot! ( SameGame ) and Puzznic . Tile-matching games were made popular in the 2000s, in
#101898