Less than a week after its global launch, MiniTycoon Casino, is now the number one mobile social game on the iPhone ahead of the real social games including Empire City, TapZoo, Restaurant Story and Farmville. This is SGN’s first pure social game on the iPhone and iPod Touch. No doubt as a result of its social features, it’s also now the number one casino game, although you don’t bet real money but instead purchase virtual goods to pimp out your place, Soprano like.
I caught up with CEO and founder Shervin Pishevar at the Monaco Media Forum to discuss the news, video below.
Launched at TechCrunch Disrupt in September, it’s available free in the App Store here. → Read More
Palo Alto based Social Gaming Network, which focuses on multiplayer iPhone/iPod/iPad games, has raised a first tranche in a second round of financing – $2 million from Tomorrow Ventures (Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s investment firm) and Xing founder Lars Hinrichs.
The company previously raised $15 million. Founder Shervin Pishevar says this new round is the first tranche in a much larger Series B funding.
Unlike most social gaming companies today, SGN has focused on very high quality games that allow multi-player gaming from different devices. Skies Of Glory is the office favorite. The company will soon be releasing titles for Android devices, says Pishevar. → Read More
SGN, a mobile gaming platform and publisher based in Silicon Valley, has named former EA and LucasArts executive Randy Breen as CEO. Founder and former CEO Shervin Pishevar continues at the company as executive chairman. Breen first joined the company in 2009 as COO.
SGN is one of the top gaming publishers on the iPhone, with 15 million unique installs of games like F.A.S.T and Skies of Glory. Revenue in this market will almost certainly explode this year with the October 2009 launch of in-game payments for free Apple appstore applications.
Companies like SGN, ngmoco and Tapulous are all in a prime position to tap into that growth. 2010 may be as good for these companies as 2009 was for the social gaming companies like Zynga, Playfish and Playdom – big financings and acquisitions across the board. → Read More
We’ve had a chance to play SGN’s Skies Of Glory WWII person-to-person dogfighting game for the iPhone. But now they’ve released this trailer for the game to really show off what they’ve built. Look for a launch date shortly.
Video is below. → Read More
Another data point that profitable businesses can be built on the back of the iPhone/iPod Touch app store: Social Gaming Network’s F.A.S.T. dogfight game, which launched in early June and lets users try to shoot down other human players, pulled in over $1 million in download fees alone in the first six weeks it was available.
SGN is clearly trying to find the revenue-maximizing price for the game – it has varied from $9.99 (the price I paid in June), to just $1.99 today. The game will eventually allow paid-for upgrades to weapons and jets when the new version comes out as well, which will bring in more dollars from addicted users.
This is an extraordinary game and certainly not representative of the average revenue from other paid apps in the App Store. But it also isn’t even currently on the top list of paid apps, and it continues to pull in substantial dollars, spiking, we hear, to as much as $60,000 per day. → Read More
Social Gaming Network (SGN) keeps on pushing out great entertainment applications for the iPhone, and we can’t help continuing to put those in the spotlight. Not only because SGN produces some damn good games that we love to play – check out its suite of Wii-like games for starters – but also because we’d really like to see more developers leverage the network capabilities of the famed Apple device like SGN and other savvy developers are doing. → Read More
People say the iPhone is really a gaming device with a mobile phone bolted on. And given how much time I spend playing games on my iPhone, I tend to agree. The touchscreen, accelerometer and (mostly still untapped) ability to play games against others over Wifi or 3G make gameplay compelling.
Social Gaming Network (among the first to exploit the iPhone accelerometer to create Wii-like games), is coming out with a new jet fighter dogfight game. The graphics are stunning, and you can fight against computer opponents or other people playing the game.
This isn’t the first iPhone dogfight game (Flying Aces and Top Gun are popular), but the graphics are way beyond what I’ve seen with the other games, the social fighting aspect is a first and unlike those games, SGN’s will be free. I had a chance to play it this morning in our offices, a video of that demo is below. → Read More
The ongoing litigation between Mob Wars creator David Maestri and SGN is over. On December 16 the two sides reached a settlement. The Mob Wars game goes to Maestri, but SGN will have rights to create similar style games itself. SGN also received an undisclosed financial settlement.
The history of this powerful little app is dramatic. It was first created by Maestri while still employed at SGN’s former iteration, FreeWebs, under the pseudonym Jason Gilbert. That alone is evidence that the game actually belonged to his employer. Maestri left SGN in February 2008, and SGN sued Maestri for control over the game. For more background, see here.
Mob Wars, which is a game that lets players act as criminals and rise through the mob ranks by committing crimes, fighting other players, etc., brings in a lot of money. Players use real currency to buy weapons and other virtual goods on the site. Some estimates suggest revenue may have peaked at $1 million/month, and there are nearly 2.5 million active users of the application on Facebook today.
It has also spawned a number of copycats, including Zynga’s Mafia Wars, with 2.7 million active users. → Read More
Social Gaming Network is launching new versions of its Wii-like iPhone sports games that let users play against others who’ve installed the apps.
In August I was disappointed that so few iPhone applications leveraged the network effect to spread virally. I used the chess apps as an example – there were lots of them, but none at the time that let you play against other people.
The chess problem has since been solved. But I am still amazed at how few applications let iPhone users interact with each other (other than the nascent mobile social networks, which continue to gain users quickly).
But SGN, which launched a bunch of sports-themed games that turn the iPhone into a Wii-like controller (and are experimenting with the iPhone as a PC game controller, too), is starting to experiment with multi-user games where players can compete against others who have the application installed. → Read More
We’ve had a blast playing SGN’s suite of Wii-like games over the last few months – iGolf, iBowl and iBaseball (basketball, tennis and boxing are coming soon). The apps are being downloaded like crazy on the App store, and no wonder – you get to swing your iPhone all over the place while you play the games.
Now SGN is rolling out something a little different. iFun turns the iPhone into a Wii-like controller, but the actual games are played on normal desktop and laptop computers.
The first title to launch is golf. If you don’t quite get it, see the video below: → Read More
Over the past year video games have begun invading every computing platform, from social networks to mobile devices. They’ve also been picked up in the portfolios of a number of firms.
London based Playfish has just raised a $17 million series B round led by Accel Partners and Index Ventures. Kevin Comolli, from Accel Partners and Ben Holmes from Index Ventures, will both join its board of directors. The company plans on putting the funds toward hiring for their 4 international offices and expanding their reach to other platforms.
The new round combined with a $3 million seed and $1 million bridge financing, makes Playfish one of three social gaming startups to take in $20 million or more in financing (Zynga – $39M, SGN – $20M). Playfish differs most from these competitors in its highly polished in-house game development. I’d call it the Wii of social gaming companies. → Read More
SGN is definitely on to something with these Wii-like iPhone games. They’ve had over 2 million downloads of iGolf and iBowl. And tonight they’ve released the next game in the series, iBaseball (iTunes link).
Like the other games it’s free, and you use the accelerometer in your iPhone to control game play. The application includes applause and game sounds, vibrates when a hit is made, and supports left handed game play. You can also challenge your friends to play, asynchronously for now but with direct head-to-head play coming soon says CEO Shervin Pishevar. → Read More
No surprise that SGN’s iPhone games are doing so well – they’re fun to play and they’re free. iGolf is at no. 7 on the top ten apps list and has, the company says, more than 1 million downloads. The newly launched iBowl is at no. 8.
Both games extensively use the accelerometer to control game action, resulting in a Wii-like experience. The only problem is the high chance of throwing the iPhone through the nearest window. → Read More
Who needs a Nintendo Wii when you’ve got an iPhone? The Social Gaming Network, which released a Wii-like golfing game for the iPhone two weeks ago, has now followed up with a bowling game. As with iGolf (which has already been downloaded more than 900,000 times), iBowl uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect a player’s swing. You can twist your wrist to give the ball spin or direct it to the pins.
SGN is better known for its games on social networks like Facebook and MySpace. iBowl is free and you can challenge your friends to games. But there does not seem to be much of a social component besides that. Not that it needs one. Becoming the Wii of the iPhone is probably a big enough opportunity in its own right. But it would be cool if you could somehow challenge your friends Facebook or other platforms to play the same game, much like like Mytopia does with casual games. Although, it probably wouldn’t be the same without the accelerometer. → Read More
SGN founder Shervin Pishevar, jetlagged and sleep deprived on a “secret mision” trip to Eastern Europe, wrote a long and partially lucid email to friends last night. I reprint it here because it captures much of the entrepreneurial spirit that drives so many of the men and women who we write about.
The full email, along with a YouTube clip, are reprinted below with Pishevar’s permission. → Read More
Once you’re done turning your iPhone photos into works of art that Monet would be envious of, check out iGolf, a minutes-old app created by Palo Alto-based Social Gaming Network.
The application uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to detect a golf-swing like motion with the phone. Choose a club and swing the iPhone just like a golf club. Save your high scores and challenge your friends to beat your distance. Our best score with the driver so far is 406 yards.
The app is free, which will be appreciated by those of us who’ve spent untold numbers of quarters playing Golden Tee at the local bar. TechCrunch writer Jason Kincaid tests the app – see the video below.
Try not to throw your iPhone through the window while playing. But if you do throw your iPhone through a window, please send us a video of you doing it. → Read More
Social Gaming Network Tuesday announced that it has completed its acquisition of (fluff)Friends, a Facebook game that lets people adopt virtual furry friends and interact with friends who also have virtual pets.
(fluff)Friends users can choose from a group of “fluff” pets that can be personalized to match the user’s personality. Once created, the pet can interact with other users and the game’s currency exchange system (which is probably the main reason why Social Gaming Network wanted this title, considering it turns into revenue for the game) has grown by an astounding 192 percent since January per spender.
The acquisition price was undisclosed, but the Social Gaming Network did say that current (fluff)Friends users won’t see any difference in gameplay after the acquisition. → Read More
Social Gaming Network, a startup behind a number of popular social network games, has partnered with the Arbor Day Foundation to create a Facebook game to raise money for, of all things, planting trees. SGN has created a game called “Space Movers: The Bloom Initiative”, and will donate up to $50,000 of the game’s advertising revenue to the cause. You can check out the app by going here. The game itself plays almost exactly like Bejeweled, with a few goofy characters and icons that all fit under a vague “nature” theme. And while the gameplay may not be too original, the game has high production values, with a full soundtrack and animations. The partnership is the latest in a string of unconventional promotions we’ve seen from developers on social networks, who are going to great lengths to increase exposure and help their games “go viral”. Last month Slide partnered with VH1 to to promote its application alongside a marathon of reality shows. SGN focuses on games that include social interaction, and claims 1.1 million daily active users across Facebook, Bebo, MySpace, and hi5, with a reported 54 million application installs. The company has raised some serious cash, with over $20 million in funding and investors including Jeff Bezos. Zynga, its closest competitor, recently closed a $29 million Series B funding round led by Kleiner Perkins, and has raised a total of nearly $40 million. CrunchBase Information Social Gaming Network Information provided by CrunchBase → Read More
Less than a year ago Alex Le and Siqi Chen were working at one of the web’s most ambitious startups, semantic search engine PowerSet (Due out soon). But last December they made the tough choice to quit it all and go full time for their own side project, a quickly growing little Facebook application called “Friends For Sale”. That project has grown into a full blown venture backed startup ironically named “Serious Business“, which just raised $4 million from Lightspeed Venture Partners (double digit pre) and currently draws over 600,000 daily active users on Facebook. Steve Newcomb, formerly of PowerSet, will be taking a seat on their board. True to its name, “Friends for Sale” is an application that lets you virtually buy and sell your friends. The game is an ego driven form of “poking” (virtual nudges) that makes it abundantly clear who the most desirable players are, by listing a leader board of your most expensive friends. Every one of your friends, whether they have the app or not, can be purchased as a “pet”. Everyone starts at a base price that rises with every resale. You get more cash when you log in, are sold, or have one of your pets bought away from you. Users can spend that cash on kicking their pets, give them funny tag lines, or even virtual gifts. That one game has also been supporting the growing company’s resources (20 Ruby on Rails servers and growing) through a mix of banner advertisements and sponsorships. While the company declined to state their earnings, they estimated the company could grow to 12 engineers without raising any financing. The financing allows the company to significantly ramp up their expansion plans. But Lightspeed didn’t invest in Serious Business just for a single game. Founder Alex Le cites “Friends for Sale” as the first in a series of of games built directly around your relationships with friends. The idea is to create games for all social networks (Facebook, OpenSocial) that rely on leveraging social skills to win, instead of your twitch reflex or poker proficiency. While they’ll have some games to announce in the next 30 days, the founders briefly threw out the example of a battle game where your friends are the soldiers and success depended on your social skills. Serious Business is not without competition. Zynga and SGN are well funded social gaming startups. However, → Read More
Consolidation is already beginning in the overcrowded Facebook application market (with 21,800 apps and counting). One of the first sectors to see buyouts of popular apps is in the social gaming sector. Earlier this year, Zynga bought CLZ Concepts and the Superheroes group of apps. Today, competitor Social Gaming Network (SGN) is responding with its own roll-up of Esgut (which created Suplerlatives, Entourage, and Text Twirl), Free Gifts, Nicknames, Oregon Trail and Friend Block. This moves SGN up the rankings in terms of total Facebook users (48.5 million) that have installed one of its apps, which puts it right behind Slide (97.7 million) and RockYou (72.6 million) and one spot ahead of Zynga (34.7 million). Of course, some of the biggest apps that SGN bought aren’t really games (Superlatives and Entourage), and in terms of daily active users, which is a more meaningful measure, Zynga is still ahead with 1.9 million versus 1.1 million. Still, SGN is obviously serious about scaling up its business by hiring, acquiring, or partnering with the best Facebook app developers out there. The developers behind Free Gifts, Esgut, and Nicknames have now joined SGN as co-founders. “We are building a brain-trust of leading app talent,” says CEO Shervin Pishevar. He recently spun off SGN from Webs.com and moved his entire team from the East Coast to Palo Alto. And this morning it just released the sequal to its popular Warbook game on Facebook—Warbook:Rise of the Infernals. The company has also launched its own cross-promotional advertising network for other gaming apps and is in the process of raising $10 million (says an outside source). (Update: That turned out to be $15 million). There are now 70 games and other apps on its Gaming Hub. One of them, Free Gifts, is now part of SGN. More than 70 million virtual gifts have been exchanged between Facebook members so far. Brands sponsor the gifts, and there is a potential for direct consumer purchase of gifts as well within a gaming context. Pishevar is almost as excited about the prospect of virtual gifts as he is about social games: It is real, it is happening, it is underground. I think it has a potential to become as important or more important than the advertising revenue. The race between SGN and Zynga to become the biggest social gaming network is a race for talent, a race for active users, and → Read More
