Kongregate teaches gamers how to make their own games
Jim Greer, the chief executive of Kongregate, is greedy for games. His web site already has more than 8,000 games created by users and independent game developers. Now he has a scheme to get even more games on the site.
Today, the San Francisco company is unveiling Kongregate Labs, a section of its site sponsored by car company Scion that teaches gamers how to create their own games. Kongregate Labs will have nine detailed tutorials that… Continue Reading
Game social network Cafe.com opens up to developers
Cafe.com, a social network for game playing, has opened its previously invite-only platform to all developers.
While most of the attention in the social games space is focused on bringing games to existing social networks (mainly Facebook), Cafe.com is going the opposite way by creating a social network entirely dedicated to playing free online games. The company is now competing for developer attention with the big social networks like Facebook and MySpace, but unlike these platforms,… Continue Reading
Casual gaming worth $2.25 billion, and growing fast
While the enthusiast gaming market is somewhat stagnant, the casual gaming market is on a spurt, growing 20 percent each year. Casual games are smaller and cheaper to develop than blockbusters like Halo, but also less lucrative. However, while the profits from casual games appear smaller, their low development costs and potentially high profit margins also provide a better opportunity for startups.
“Casual gaming” is loosely defined as anything easy to learn that doesn’t require a… Continue Reading
Kongregate, the gaming Web site, raises $5 million
Kongregate, a gaming Web site that targets young men and woos game developers with incentives, has raised over $5 million to support its growth.
It lets developers compete to create games, and rewards the best of them.
The San Francisco-based company launched publicly in March (our coverage), and has grown since then to include nearly 1,500 games from 750 independent game developers. It is nearing a million unique visitors per month, 85 percent of whom are… Continue Reading
Kongregrate, the online social game hub
Updated
Kongregate, of San Francisco, launches tomorrow with a host of Web games targeted at young males with social networking components pushing new bounds.
Kongregate is signifiacant because it targets a group that until now hasn’t been served by online social games. Social gaming has been the domain of women, especially older women (served by companies like Club Pogo, owned by Electronics Arts). Young males searching social action games have had to download large software programs to… Continue Reading
Roundup: Digg, MyBlogLog, Sling, Trumba, Kongregate & more
Silicon Valley never sleeps. Here’s the latest tech stuff:
Digg subverted — The news site that ranks stories based on how many users submit them, is being subverted by a group called Spike the Vote. It lets its members conspire to submit certain URLs of stories — thereby lifting the odds those stories will get front-page coverage.
MyBlogLog goes live — This is a site we’ve mentioned before, while it was in testing mode. It hasn’t changed its basic… Continue Reading