Over 200 sign up to publish on Bigpoint's DevLounge
Developers flock to service offering free access to 118 million users
Browser-based gaming company Bigpoint has told GamesIndustry.biz that over 200 developers are currently signed-up to its publishing service DevLounge, which allows small creative game makers the opportunity to reach the company's registered user base of over 118 million.
The service is just one initiative by the company to grow its user base in the rapidly diversifying online digital market, as it sees between 200,000 and 250,000 new users register daily.
"We opened up the Bigpoint API so that as a small developer you can upload your game to the Bigpoint Development Lounge and you can connect to our registration system and we can directly send over users," said chief creative officer Nils-Holger Henning in an interview published today.
"On the one hand it's a kind of talent screening tool and on the other we're sharing our traffic with third-party developers."
With around twenty titles already published and 200-plus going through the launch process, the service is ideal for creatives who want to test the market for their game and take advantage of Bigpoint's experience in making money in the browser games sector.
"A small developer that creates a game but doesn't yet know how to drive traffic, to monetise and get everything done – they don't have to risk their own money. They can plug it into Bigpoint and see if it works," he said.
Henning wouldn't be drawn on current rumours that the company is looking into a possible sale, and instead insisted the business is focused on expanding outside of Europe, and taking the North American market very seriously after falling short on previous attempts.
"The big mistake we made in the past was to go international to some markets and not care so much about the localisation, to just assume it's a language difference. And we didn't use the right people, we didn't use the right payment systems," he admitted.
"We know right now that the US is a different market. Ask an American when he buys a car if he's had a look in the manual before he gets in it. Ask a German if he would put the key inside the lock without reading the manual three times over.
"This is a big cultural gap and it's the same when it comes to gaming. And now we understand that we either do it in the right way or let's forget about it."
The full interview with Nils-Holger Henning, where he also discusses creating games based on intellectual properties and why the Unity platform is ideal for the company, can be read here.