Posts Tagged ‘nickelodeon’

MTV dives headfirst into Social Gaming with Social Express acquisition

Friday, July 9th, 2010

Announced yesterday, MTV Networks have successfully acquired social games maker Social Express Inc. The acquisition marks MTV’s first formal entry into the social gaming space. The network intends on developing social gaming content based on original IP, as well as shows and characters from MTC, Nickelodeon and other brands under the MTV/Viacom banner. I can’t wait for the Jersey Shore social game. MTV is aiming for a Q3 release date of their first social gaming offering.

mtv_logo“Social gaming is one of the biggest drivers of the explosive growth in social media – it’s fun, it’s engaging, and it’s shareable,” said Judy McGrath, Chairman and CEO of MTV Networks. “Social Express brings us strong experience and know-how in this burgeoning space, which we’ll supercharge with the IP and scale of Nickelodeon and other MTV Networks brands to create great new social gaming experiences for our fans and cool tools for independent developers as well.”

In addition to social games creation and distribution, MTV also plans on leveraging Social Express’s expertise to launch a new publishing platform that will be used to encourage social games developers to contribute.

Nickelodeon Digital will see the first integration with Social Express influence, as Social Express co-founder and CEO Tony Espinoza will now oversee social gaming strategy and development as Vice President and General Manager of Social Gameing for MTV Networks’ Nickelodeon Kids & Family Group. Do they really fit that on a business card? Social Express’s other co-founder, Neil Souza will now take on the roll of Vice President of Technology, Social Games.

“The Social Express team is a great addition to our gaming unit, and they are set to be a key part of our growth strategy,” said Stephen Youngwood, Executive Vice President for Digital, Nickelodeon/MTVN Kids & Family Group. Again…what’s with the overly long titles?

The Social Express acquisition serves to augment MTV’s current portfolio of gaming destinations including AddictingGames.com, Shockwave.com, Nick.com/games, Nick.com Arcade, Neopets, Game Trailers, and Xfire.

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U.S. online gaming market grows 22 percent Year over Year

Monday, July 13th, 2009

Leader internet measurement firm comScore released on Friday new data that reveals the United States online gaming market attracted approximately 87 million visitors in May 2009, a 22 percent gain over May 2008. The data points to a slumping economy as a primary driver, as more and more Americans are increasingly seeking out cheaper entertainment options.

Coming up big again this year is Yahoo! Games, bringing home the bacon with approximately 19.4 million visitors, up 6 percent from May ’08, filing their way through the big Y’s offerings. EA Online took the number two spot with 18 million visitors, a healthy 34 percent increase YOY. Nickelodeon Casual Games with 14.8 million visitors, and Wild Tangent Network with 13.8 million visitors (a 16 percent increase) took spots 3 and 4 respectively. And while these numbers are in their own right, impressive, the best newcomer award clearly belongs to GSN Games Networks which saw 6 million visitors in May 2009, representing a stellar 563 percent increase over May 2008 traffic.

comScore data 1

“Online gaming continues to be one of the top gaining categories over the past year growing at ten times the rate of the total U.S. Internet population and reaching nearly one out of every two Internet users,” said Edward Hunter, comScore director of gaming solutions. “And the growth in the category is occurring not only at the top gaming destination sites, but also through viral distribution platforms, including widgets and applications. In fact, some online gaming companies that distributed their games across sites are reaching as many people as the top online gaming sites.”

Also included in the data is comScore’s noting of a growing trend in the online gaming space: distributed content. These distributed content platforms include widgets and applications. comScore has found that these methods of distribution can often put creators of said delivery mechanisms numbers similar to gaming portal destinations. For example, accord to the comScore data, MochiMedia reached a combined total audience of 16.9 million in May ’09, which in effect, would put them in spot number 3, above Nickelodeon Casual Games. Likewise, Games2Win was visited over 1.8 million times in May ’09, which would put them squarely within the top 20 online gaming destinations.

comScore data 2

“The power and reach of viral content distribution is well captured by comScore Extended Web Metrix,” said Alok Kejriwal, CEO and Co-Founder, Games2win. “With these latest consumer traffic numbers, we can now effectively present and strategically leverage our accelerating audience reach, and share data with our advertisers, marketers and partners that represents a holistic view of who is playing our games and from where.

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Nickelodeon’s AddictingGames to leap to iPhone

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

As the iPhone 3.0 (microtransaction supporting) OS continues to gather users, as well as Apple’s clear indication to engage the gaming market with the 3GS version, developers have already started the run for the roses, trying to make their products the primary destination. And while there are a number of top producers doing quite well with their iPhone products, the ante was just upped, as Nickelodeon’s wildly successful AddictingGames is now iPhone bound under the name AddictingGames iNetwork.

AddictingGames LogoLeveraging their existing name and market position, the iNetwork will provide a cross-promotional network, allowing indie iPhone games developers access to AddictingGames.com’s reach, upsell capabilities, and naturally social gaming features – high scores, reviews, level builders, facebook connect integration and player matching. While specific numbers were not released, AddictingGames iNetwork will offer these features in exchange for a revenue share with the developer.

Nickelodeon themselves plan on releasing three new titles to the AddictingGames lineup. iNetwork games will be based on Viacom/MTV Networks properties including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, and a host of others. Nickelodeon is also promoting their AddictingGames network via a number of TV segments, including the “AddictingGames Showdown” which ran on June 27th and featured a number of online games and game some recognition to the many developers who have created high performing games for AddictingGames’ users.

The first AddictingGames that will be available on the iPhone include: “iParking It,” based on the popular “Parking Lot” game series on AddictingGames.com; “50 States,” a geography duel; and the strategy game “World Wars.” More titles are slated for the coming months.

“The iPhone is perfectly suited for our easy-to-play, fresh, fun games which together present a pretty powerful combination,” said Dave Williams, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Nickelodeon Kids and Family Games Group. “With the AddictingGames iNetwork, we are extending our relationships with developers to the iPhone platform, and are giving them a new promotional vehicle for their games.”

With May 2009 seeing 11.9 million unique visits according to comScore, and 50 new games launching every month, it’s easy to see why AddictingGames has occupied the number one place to reach the male 12-24 online gaming demographic. With 28% of Gen Y consumers owning an iPhone of iPod Touch, and 53% of them downloading games applications in one form or another, Nickelodeon looks to be in a position to hands down dominate.

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