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The Industry Standard (Free subscription) | 11/20/2009
We’ve got some great momentum for VentureBeat’s upcoming DiscoveryBeat event, which will attack the problem of how to get attention for an app in the midst of a lot of noise. One of our newest speakers is Randy Breen, chief operating officer at Social Gaming Network , where he oversees game development, business development, strategy and executive management. He has worked in the game...
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VentureBeat (Free subscription) | 11/17/2009
We’re pleased to announce a trio of new speakers for our DiscoveryBeat event on how to get your apps noticed. Our newest speakers at the Dec. 8 event include Ge Wang, the co-founder, chief technology officer, and chief creative officer at iPhone app developer Smule. We’re delighted because Smule has popularized apps such as the whimsical Ocarina music app that lets you blow into an iPhone...
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VentureBeat (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Playdom is one of the red hot companies in social games, having announced a $43 million funding round this week. But its success has been mostly in making games on MySpace. Now it is announcing two acquisitions that will expand its presence in both Facebook and iPhone games. Mountain View, Calif.-based has acquired Facebook developer Green Patch and iPhone developer Trippert Labs. The deals will bring...
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The Industry Standard (Free subscription) | 11/13/2009
Playdom is one of the red hot companies in social games, having announced a $43 million funding round this week. But its success has been mostly in making games on MySpace. Now it is announcing two acquisitions that will expand its presence in both Facebook and iPhone games. Mountain View, Calif.-based has acquired Facebook developer Green Patch and iPhone developer Trippert Labs. The deals will bring...
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VentureBeat (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
Playdom, one of three major social gaming companies, has raised $43 million with a huge valuation that reflects how hot the social gaming space has become. Techcrunch reported that the deal valued Playdom at $260 million, pre-money. Investors included New Enterprise Associates, Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The company itself has not yet confirmed the investment....
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The Industry Standard (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
Playdom , one of three major social gaming companies, has raised $43 million with a huge valuation that reflects how hot the social gaming space has become. Techcrunch reported that the deal valued Playdom at $260 million, pre-money. Investors included New Enterprise Associates, Rick Thompson, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Norwest Venture Partners. The company itself has not yet confirmed the investment....
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Don't Lose Your Day Job (Free subscription) | 11/11/2009
In June, soon-to-be-ex-Electronic Arts COO John Pleasants revealed that Criterion Games was taking over the Need for Speed series. The news came five months after the publisher revealed it was splitting its once-top-selling racing series into three subfranchises for the PC, the Wii and DS, and the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Clark Kent says: Find [...]
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The Guardian (Free subscription) | 11/09/2009
London-based social gaming startup Playfish is celebrating after striking a $400m (£240m) deal to join the world's biggest games publisher, Electronic Arts. After months of speculation over the possibility of a buyout, the Californian publisher announced today that it was acquiring the two-year-old company, which makes popular Facebook games such as Restaurant City and Pet Society. Unlike traditional...
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Paidcontent (Free subscription) | 10/15/2009
Reports have been flying around about Electronic Arts ( NSDQ: ERTS ) potentially buying hot social-gaming company Playfish—with sources telling Inside Social Games that the deal may have closed “a few weeks ago”, and GamesIndustry.biz reporting that it was worth $250 million. EA’s response to us: “We don’t comment on rumors about our acquisition strategy.”...
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VentureBeat (Free subscription) | 10/06/2009
Playdom, the hot social gaming company that dominates games on MySpace and is moving into Facebook and iPhone games, is raising a significant round of venture capital, VentureBeat has learned. The company is raising a sizable round in the double-digit millions and is seeking a valuation around $100 million to $200 million, according to venture capital sources. “I think they’re going to...
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Paidcontent (Free subscription) | 09/18/2009
Not much differentiates one hot new social gaming startup from another. Sure they have different games—and maybe even slightly different business models—but for the most part, they make their money through some combination of user-generated revenue (micro-transactions, virtual goods, subscriptions, etc.) and advertising. What’s really interesting is when other people in the industry—rival...
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VentureBeat (Free subscription) | 07/21/2009
Playdom has launched its first iPhone game, Mobsters: Big Apple, as an extension to its hit version on the MySpace social network. The hot social games startup has the No. 1 game on MySpace with its Mobsters title, which has 13.5 million users. The company hopes to repeat its success on MySpace on the iPhone as it makes a very deliberate, if late, move to take on rivals such as Social Gaming Network...
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Startup Meme (Free subscription) | 07/08/2009
Skyfire has made a key hire as it appointed Jeffrey Glueck as its new CEO. Glueck was previously working at Travelocity as the firms Chief Marketing Officer and had successfully boosted the company’s business to $10.6 billion worldwide. With Glueck moving in to take the position of CEO, Nitin Bhandari, the former CEO of Skyfire will take charge as Skyfire’s chief product officer. Tags:...
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Tech Blog (Free subscription) | 06/24/2009
Facebook appears to be moving closer to cashing in on the social gaming phenomenon it has created on its platform and, judging by the numbers being quoted at the second annual Social Gaming Summit, that can’t come soon enough. In a session on Tuesday featuring executives from leading social-gaming publishers, John Pleasants, the new chief executive [...]
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Lightspeed Venture Partners Blog (Free subscription) | 06/24/2009
I moderated two panels at the Social Gaming Summit 2009 today. The first was about building social games at scale and featured the CEOs/COOs of the top three social game companies; Mark Pincus of Zynga, John Pleasants of Playdom and Sebastien de Halleux of Playfish. Gamasutra has an excellent writeup of the panel. Inside Social Games also [...]
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