I’ve been short on LoL news for the past few days, mostly because there isn’t much happening. I’ve also been a bit busier than usual, so I’ve not been able to give as much thought to the state of the game (or even play all that much).

Today, the iPhone 4 announcement pulled me away from my typical coverage. I really like the iPhone, and the latest version is a nice little upgrade. I’ll likely pick one up and sell my 3GS along the way to cover the cost of the new phone and the $18 pittance they call an upgrade fee.

The official LoL boards are still down, despite the announcement that gave a 2-3PM PST maintenance schedule. I’d like to think Riot is rolling out some new features in preparation for Season One but I have my doubts. You gotta figure we’re getting close, though. Changes to existing champions get smaller and smaller week by week, which points to some acceptable level of balance on the part of the developers.

Just look at the green slice on that pie chart. That’s exactly where Sony wishes the PSP was. Instead, it’s Apple. Yes, Apple. I never thought I would see the day that a computer manufacturer was stealing mobile market share from Nintendo but here we are. In just 21 months Apple has managed to snag 19% of the mobile market by revenue.

It’s a pretty impressive stat, considering the lower price of software for the iPhone OS. Can you imagine the number of transactions involved? The really bad news in this story is for Sony, whose revenues are down almost 50% from last year. The PSP Go was obviously not a hit – not that anyone expected it to be – and there hasn’t been much in the way of software to encourage any newcomers to the platform.

As far as total revenue goes, the iPhone OS is now 5% of the total market share, including consoles. If that’s not something for Apple to be happy about, I don’t know what it would take.

Source: Flurry

Apple has revolutionized the entire computer and Internet service. With its iPod, iTunes, and iPhones, music, and games are available right in your hand. Now winning money too is just one click away, thanks to real money casino games on your iPhone. The Bingo Bonanza, a first of its kind, lets you play bingo for fun or money on your iPhone. So if you love iPhone and you love bingo, what better combination to choose from! The best part is you can play the game anywhere, anytime and keep winning money. So you can chuck your boredom out of the window while waiting at the doc or in a long line at the grocery or just about anywhere.

A combination of lotto-ball drawing game and bingo, the Bingo Bonanza is pure fun and excitement on your palm. You have to figure the winning two matching balls with the six already drawn balls. Multiply the value on the balls with your bet and you could win almost 20,000 times the original bet. That’s iPhone online casino games in short for you.

To make it even more interesting, the game comes with a turbo mode for an even adrenaline rushing game. A variety of colors and themes help you to personalize the game thus increasing your gaming experience. Unlike a free bingo game that you can just download, the real money available in this Bingo Bonanza makes the stakes higher and the excitement manifold.

I’ve had to make a conscious effort not to get Plants vs. Zombies for the iPhone, simply because I know I’ll spend too much of my life playing it. That game is insanely addictive, to a point I think is fair to consider unhealthy. A couple hundred thousand people have been bitten by this brainless monster, putting the total sales figures for just 9 days at a million bucks.

As PopCap has it, the game sold more than 300,000 units in just 9 days, which set an App Store record.

“There’s always a concern when bringing a computer game to a mobile, pocket-sized device that something will get lost in the process, but in this case the overwhelming consensus is that Plants vs. Zombies is even more fun on the smaller touch screen!” That’s Andrew Stein, PopCap’s director of mobile business development. The company is also responsible for Bejeweled, a game that never leaves the top downloads page it seems. Apparently Bejeweled is now the first paid app to reach 3 million dollars.

Source: Kotaku

We’ve been waiting for a mobile version of the Xbox platform for a long time. A very long time. I think the success of the iPhone has killed that dream, and the new Windows Phone 7 is going to be the closest we’ll see for a very long time.

The problem is, the Windows Phone 7 doesn’t really do all that much. Ballmer and company were quick to tout its Xbox Live integration, but what do you really get? You can collect mobile achievements for some more Gamerscore (does anyone actually care about Gamerscore?), browse leaderboards, play turn-based games though not in real time, and take a peek at your Avatar (possible from any web capable phone already).

Those are pretty lackluster features for a phone that’s supposed to bring your entertainment experience on the go. Ron Pessner, the GM of Xbox LIVE Mobile had this to say: “It has always been our vision to expand the Xbox LIVE service to connect people to their games, entertainment and friends wherever they go, and the launch of Windows Phone 7 Series is an important step toward that goal.”

It’s a baby step, my friend, as in you guys finally have a platform that isn’t fugly so you actually did some development for it. Color me unimpressed.

You might not be a believer in the iPad. I understand that. I respect that. As it stands, the device is pretty lackluster, and it’s certainly lacking in the gaming department. PopCap believes in it, though, or at least one of the co-founder’s does.

John Vechey recently talked with Eurogamer about the future of Apple’s newest gadget and the role it would play in PopCap’s development. “The iPad’s important,” he said, “but I think it’s going to be more important in three years … it’s probably going to take the second generation to make it really, like, ‘Wow!’” I’d say at least the second. Unless Apple’s initial release was the worst tease of all time, the iPad has a long way to go before it becomes a must-have item.

It’s not just the device Vechey is attracted to, it’s the accessibility to new content. “Here’s this new device that gets to more people with a really great e-commerce model attached to it … it’s really easy to buy on the iPhone — that’s part of what makes it successful.”

Read the full interview at Eurogamer.

According to a recent study by Game Developer Research, the iPhone OS has surpassed both the Nintendo DS and the PSP as a handheld gaming development platform. The study showed that 19 percent of all developers are coding for the iPhone/iPod Touch, which is more than double the stats for both Nintendo and Sony.

If you think this isn’t a big deal, consider the following: handheld games are now 25 percent of the total gaming market, up from just 12 percent before the iPhone came on the scene. That’s some huge growth, even if you figure most iPhone gamers are playing simple things like Bejeweled 2 and Tap Tap Revenge. Sure, there’s no Scribblenauts, not yet anyway, but the platform has enough support from both gamers and developers that I’m sure we’ll see more serious titles in the future.

The problem for me is still the lack of physical controls. I know the touch thing is cool, but it’s also completely frustrating to cover your game screen with your thumbs. That’s not enjoyable. I’m still waiting for that universal controller add-on to launch.

Source: Electronista

Someone needs to sit down with John Koller, Sony’s hardware marketing manager, and give him a quick lesson on cause and effect. He seems to think the iPad, as with the iPod Touch and iPhone, will drive PSP sales for customers looking for “deeper, richer console.” Personally, I think he’s nuts.

The numbers look good – the PSP and PSP Go have tripled in combined sales since the launch of the iPhone. But that doesn’t make the two related. My guess is the price of the PSP has gone down so much and the units have been hacked so many times that it’s become accessible enough to encourage a lot of gamers to buy.

I talk a lot on Gadget Teaser about the death of dedicated devices and the future of the all-in-wonder. I think handheld gaming is following the trend toward multi-purpose machines. Apple has simply put together a better system for supporting that kind of platform. If Sony doesn’t make some changes, I wouldn’t be surprised to see PSP sales plateau in the next 2 years.

Source: WSJ

So you’re unwilling to spend the money on Steam for a version of Plants vs. Zombies you can’t take on the go. For a hot minute it looked like you might be in luck, set to enjoy PopCap’s great little tower defense game on the iPhone by the end of the month. Sadly, the game has been delayed, pushed back until mid-February.

The news was delivered via a tweet from the company that included the adjective “*confident*” – stars included – to describe the new launch window. If I were you, I’d save the last couple bucks you have in your iTunes account until next month. You know you want this.

Oh, and until then, consider the League of Legends: Turret Defense game. It’s surprisingly addictive, particularly for a game that has very little to do with its inspiration.

This little bit of news will have you wishing someone would just make a standard controller peripheral for the iPhone/iPod Touch. Epic Games has successfully ported its Unreal Engine 3 to Apple’s mobile platform.

Anandtech got a chance to play with a demo of some familiar weaponry and level design. The demo looks really smooth, as the video over at Anandtech shows, though Epic said this shouldn’t be taken as a sign that the developer is getting serious about the platform. My guess is that it’s because of a lack of hardware support. The engine requires Open GL ES 2.0, a feature only available to the newest iPod Touch and the iPhone 3GS. Without wider adoption its probably not worth it to spend time developing a game that would only reach a portion of possible iPhone gamers.

Check the video over at Anandtech.