ngmoco, maker of such free-to-play (with in-app purchases) game hits like Touch Pets and Eliminate has just raised a cool $25 million in funding and bought long time Mac and iPhone developer Freeverse of Skee-Ball and Flick Fishing fame. Techcrunch spoke to ngmoco CEO, Neil Young who said it was all about scale and acceleration:

He expects ngmoco to put out about about 20 new games this year, and the newly-acquired Freeverse team to nearly match that.

In addition to rolling out wave after wave of new iPhone games, Young also plans to open up an SDK to ngmoco’s Plus+ system so that other developers can more easily tap into it.

We just look forward to Eliminate-ing some Skee-Ball’ers in crossover action! But the question we have for you is this — do you like the free-to-play with in-app purchases model? (i.e. you get the game for free but can buy food or energy or power-ups or whatever inside the game). And how do you feel about all of ngmoco — and now all of Freeverse’s games going that way?

iPhone Gaming Studio ngmoco Buys Mac/iPhone Developer Freeverse is a story by TiPb. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

TiPb – The #1 iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch Blog

Join us along with special Round Robin guests Phil Nickinson of Android Central and WMExperts, and fellow cross-platformer Keith Newman of PalmCast fame! We’ll look at how the Motorola Droid, HTC Hero, HTC HD2, and HTC Touch Pro2 (that’s a lot of HTC!) compare to TiPb’s own iPhone. Plus all the week’s news, views, and rants. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, hit us up on Twitter @theiphoneblog, or better still — join us live in the chat room via http://www.tipb.com/live

REMINDER: You can watch us live on your iPhone with the Ustream Viewer app [Free - iTunes link]. Just wait until the show starts (8pm ET) and search for iPhone. We’ll pop up. Literally.

Chat with you soon!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Live! with Android/WMExpert Phil Nickinson Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT (1am GMT)

Draw [$2.99 - iTunes link] lets you doodle on your iPhone or iPod touch to pass the time or whip up whiteboard-style diagrams to illustrate your point, share via Twitter or email, and even challenge friend’s to tic-tac-toe or homespun games via P2P.

Draw comes by way of Erica Sadun of Jailbreak, iPhone dev, and TUAW fame, and she not only knows how to make great apps, but beautifully stylized ones as well. If you want a good mix of casual productivity and just plain old-world fun on a decidedly new-world device, give Draw a go and let us know what you think.

More screenshots after the break!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Draw: Shareable, Playable, Tweet-able Sketchpad for iPhone

Join Chad, Rene ,and special guest, Keith Newman (of PalmCast fame) tonight for all the week’s news, views, and rants. If you have any questions, leave a comment below, hit us up on Twitter @theiphoneblog, or better still — join us live in the chat room via http://www.tipb.com/live

REMINDER: You can watch us live on your iPhone with the Ustream Viewer app [Free - iTunes link]. Just wait until the show starts (8pm ET) and search for iPhone. We’ll pop up. Literally.

Chat with you soon!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Live! Tonight at 8pm ET/5pm PT (1am GMT)

DVD Jon, who gained fame and notoriety for cracking DVD and iTunes encryption, has since devoted a lot of his time and energy into DoubleTwist, and iTunes replacement. The above video is, of course, a parody of Apple’s anti-IBM “big brother” commercial that aired during the 1984 SuperBowl, this time recasting Apple — and Steve Jobs — as “big brother” and intimating they’ve become what they once mocked. All this by way of promoting the next release of DoubleTwist for Mac, coming Oct. 6.

TechCrunch has a few more details, while Fake Steve, in much harsher language, calls him a remora.

Still, we’ll be interested to see what they have coming, as no doubt will Palm Pre users…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Wednesday Fun Video: 1984 Gets DoubleTwist’ed