Yahoo gets in on the social gaming phenomenon

Internet giant Yahoo is inviting third party independent games developers to participate in its newly launched social gaming network, taking advantage of its offer to boost distribution and provide easy-to-access services that help build player bases and monetise games through analytical facilities, operational support and social sharing.

Yahoo says its new venture will carry Yahoo games like poker, pool and bingo, along with popular branded titles such as Slotomania and Bingo Blingo. These will run alongside wider offerings such as classic games accessed through both online and mobile devices.

In May last year Yahoo acquired the California-based cross-platform game infrastructure start up PlayerScale for an undisclosed consideration. At the time the company boasted that it supported over 2,600 developers and 4,000 games played by 150 million mobile users on platforms such as iOS and Android.

Former PlayScale founder Jesper Jensen, now general manager for games at Yahoo, said this week:

“We’re already working with some of the best developers in the industry like Rumble Entertainment, DreamWorks, SGN, ChangYou, Namco Bandai America, Playtika, FlowPlay, Con Artist Games and many more on web and mobile.

“We plan to keep building out our platform with improvements and new features – providing not only a great experience for our millions of users, but also a cross-platform network for developers looking to reach the untapped gaming audience of Yahoo’s 800 million users worldwide, including 400 million users on mobile.”

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