Mpowerplayer, a Washington, DC-based startup that provides
mobile game demos, has secured $2.5 million in Series A funding from investors
New Atlantic Ventures, the Center for Innovative Technology GAP
Fund, and LaunchBox Digital.
The company plans to use the funding to expand their
presence and their widget-based mobile game catalog on more social networking
sites.
In light of Apple’s success with the iPhone App Store, more
people are focusing on mobile gaming. Mpowerplayer allows mobile game
publishers to let people try out their games online before purchasing them. Joe
Ariganello, Vice President of Strategy and Business Development at Mpowerplayer,
explains that the company works with each game’s publisher to determine the
length of the demo (which averages 5 minutes) in order to “make sure that
customers can learn enough about the game to make an informed buying decision.”
The game publishers and wireless carriers can also opt to
white-label Mpowerplayer’s technology to create their sites with the demos to
maintain their company’s look and feel as customers browse the games.
Demos play an incredibly important role in expanding the
gaming industry. The average consumer does not browse gaming websites to read
preview coverage of games. Either way, reading a summary of the game or an
in-depth preview/review still fails to address the most important aspect: is
the game fun for the consumer? Mobile games, in particular, do not generally
receive much coverage on gaming sites, and so recede into obscurity.
“70 percent of online consumers play games in their web
browser, but less than 5 percent play games on their mobile phones,” said
Mpowerplayer CEO Michael Powers in a statement. “Casual web gamers are a hugely
under-served market for mobile content and we are uniquely positioned to bridge
that gap.”
Offering games through a web browser rather than through a
phone’s service allows the games to reach a wider audience.
And, because tastes vary, having the consumer try the game
out for himself or herself is oftentimes the best way to secure a sale or a
purchase (so long as the game is a good one). More publishers need to take note
and follow suit with their own demos.