Bejeweled (series)

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Bejeweled
Bejeweled Logo.png
Genre(s)Puzzle
Developer(s)PopCap Games
Publisher(s)PopCap Games
Electronic Arts
Creator(s)Jason Kapalka[1]
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Xbox 360
Windows Phone
Windows Mobile
Mac OS X
iOS
Android
PlayStation 3
PlayStation Portable
Nintendo DS
Wii
Java ME
Adobe Flash
Palm OS
Symbian^3
PlayStation Vita
Online
Arcade
First releaseBejeweled
May 30, 2001
Latest releaseBejeweled Champions
September 9, 2020
Spin-offsBejeweled Twist, Bejeweled Blitz, Bejeweled Stars

Bejeweled is a series of tile-matching puzzle video games created by PopCap Games. Bejeweled was released initially for browsers in 2001, followed by seven sequels: Bejeweled 2 (2004), Bejeweled Twist (2008), Bejeweled Blitz (2009), Bejeweled 3 (2010), Bejeweled Legend (2012, in Japan only) Bejeweled Stars (2016), and Bejeweled Champions (2020) all by PopCap Games and its parent, Electronic Arts. More than 10 million copies of Bejeweled have been sold, and the game has been downloaded more than 350 million times.[2] By February 2010, Bejeweled sales hit 50 million. The figure includes the original game, plus the Blitz and Twist versions.[3] An arcade version was released in Q3 2013.

Games[]

Main series
Spin-offs

Development[]

Bejeweled was initially created by PopCap Games as a web-based Flash game named Diamond Mine. PopCap created partnerships with established Internet gaming sites, such as Microsoft Zone, to host Bejeweled as well. The name Bejeweled was suggested by Microsoft, who thought the original name Diamond Mine was too similar to that of an existing game, Diamond Mines.

The game has been ported to other platforms, including Microsoft Windows, where it was called Bejeweled Deluxe. Astraware produced versions for PDAs on the BlackBerry, iPhone, Palm and Windows Mobile smartphone platforms. They also released Bejeweled Deluxe on the Xbox as a downloadable Xbox Live Arcade game. It was released as one of the first games downloadable from the iTunes Store for the iPod in September 2006.

PopCap Games initially announced a version of Bejeweled for the iPhone that was not a standalone game, but rather a web application playable over the Safari browser.[5] A native application for the iPhone has since been made available for purchase in the iTunes store, although the web-based version still exists.

Influence[]

Bejeweled was influenced by the game Shariki,[6] written in 1988 by Russian developer Eugene Alemzhin, which had nearly identical gameplay. The popularity of Bejeweled has spawned several clones. Collectively known as match three games, these games revolve around the mechanics of creating three-in-a-row combinations of identical pieces.

Legacy[]

Bejeweled is often considered an important part of the match-3 genre.[citation needed] The series had won multiple awards. By 2013, PopCap estimates that over 10 billion hours of the game had been played on over 500 million downloaded copies.[7] In 2020, Bejeweled was inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame.[8]

Further reading[]

  • Luciano Gualà; Stefano Leucci; Emanuele Natale (24 March 2014). "Bejeweled, Candy Crush and other Match-Three Games are (NP-)Hard". arXiv:1403.5830. Bibcode:2014arXiv1403.5830G. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)

References[]

  1. ^ "Bejeweled® Deluxe Readme". Archived from the original on 2010-06-12. Retrieved 2017-03-07.
  2. ^ Ward, Mark (2008-03-18). "Casual games make a serious impact". BBC News. BBC. Archived from the original on 21 March 2008. Retrieved 2008-03-20.
  3. ^ Alexander, Leigh (February 10, 2010). "Bejeweled Sales Hit 50 Million". Gamasutra. Retrieved March 14, 2020.
  4. ^ "https://twitter.com/worldwinner/status/1303767806471741441". Twitter. Retrieved 2020-12-14. External link in |title= (help)
  5. ^ "Bejeweled for the iPhone, Blast Magazine". Archived from the original on 2007-09-27. Retrieved 2007-08-12.
  6. ^ "Museum of the Schariki game" (in Russian). Archived from the original on 20 October 2008. Retrieved 2008-11-13.
  7. ^ Edwards, Jim (2013-09-11). "The Definitive, Illustrated History of the Most Underrated Game Ever". Business Insider. Retrieved 2017-03-11.
  8. ^ "Bejeweled, Minecraft among games inducted into hall of fame | The Spokesman-Review". www.spokesman.com. Retrieved 2020-12-08.

External links[]

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