Raptr Partners Program
Activision and THQ join the gang.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., July 22, 2009 — Raptr ( http://raptr.com), the social utility that allows you to connect with your gaming friends and see what the world is playing, today announced Activision Publishing, Inc. and THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) as the newest members of the Raptr Partners Program. Activision and THQ join leading game companies Sony Online Entertainment, NHN USA, Gala-Net, and GamesCampus, as well as hardware companies Razer and Bigfoot Networks, as Raptr partners. Raptr is now on over 1 million gamers’ PCs in over 150 countries.
“Representing some of the largest game franchises globally, Activision and THQ are welcome and significant additions to the Raptr Partners Program, which already features some of the game industry’s biggest and best-regarded companies,” said Dennis Fong, Founder and CEO of Raptr. “Connections between friends on social networks are a tremendously powerful marketing tool. We look forward to working with Activision and THQ to help them drive even deeper player engagement and reach even more gamers.”
Launched in March 2009, the Raptr Partners Program provides key marketing opportunities to game publishers and gaming hardware providers. Focused on unlocking the power of word-of-mouth game discovery, these opportunities include distribution of a co-branded Raptr client bundled with a partner’s games or hardware; integration with Raptr APIs to surface game data such as player stats, achievements, rankings and progress; and use of the Raptr platform and its social media integrations with top services such as Facebook and Twitter.
“By allowing gamers a simple way to broadcast their triumphs, achievements and gaming preferences to all of their friends, Raptr has established an excellent word-of-mouth platform for game publishers to market and strengthen brand affinity around their game titles,” said Carlson Choi, Director of Interactive Marketing at Activision Publishing, Inc. We have already seen evidence of Raptr’s marketing reach with Call of Duty: World at War. We are pleased to join the Partner’s program and look forward to exploring additional co-marketing opportunities with other titles.”
Raptr’s popular, free service includes a multi-network IM made for gaming that allows users to chat with friends on the top IM networks and gaming services, all in one buddy list. Raptr currently supports AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ and Facebook Chat as well as gaming services Xfire and Xbox Live. Raptr automatically tracks what games a user is playing, updates their status in real-time to show friends what they’re playing and broadcasts their in-game achievements. Friends who also have Raptr can easily join each other in-game with one click.
Raptr has been bundled with Activision’s Call of Duty®: World at War ™ since its launch in November of 2008. With this announcement, Raptr will now also be integrated with THQ games, starting with the recently released Red Faction®: Guerrilla™ and the upcoming Dragonica™ Online, a free to play title by the THQ-ICE joint venture.
“Joining the Raptr Partners Program allows us to reach current and future gamers in a fresh and thorough manner as well as keep up with the trends in gameplay through the data Raptr aggregates,” said Wim Stocks, Vice President, Strategic Sales & Partnerships at THQ. “The gamer connections that the Raptr client enables will soon bring THQ’s titles to more gamers through its viral nature and allow us to better serve fans of our games.”
Companies interested in signing up for the Raptr Partners Program can visit http://partners.raptr.com for more information. People interested in experiencing the Raptr service can get it for free at http://raptr.com.
About Activision Publishing, Inc.
Headquartered in Santa Monica, California, Activision Publishing, Inc. is a leading worldwide developer, publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment and leisure products.
Activision maintains operations in the U.S., Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Sweden, Spain, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Australia, Russia, Japan, South Korea, China and the region of Taiwan. More information about Activision and its products can be found on the company's website, www.activision.com.
About THQ Inc.
THQ Inc. (NASDAQ: THQI) is a leading worldwide developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software. The company develops its products for all popular game systems, personal computers and wireless devices. Headquartered in Los Angeles County, California, THQ sells product through its global network of offices located throughout North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. More information about THQ and its products may be found at www.thq.com. THQ, Red Faction: Guerrilla and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc.
About Raptr
Raptr ( http://raptr.com) is a social utility that allows you to connect with your gaming friends and see what the world is playing. Our goal is to make playing games more fun and social. We do this by letting you IM with all of your friends in one buddy list, show friends what you're playing, join your friends in-game with one click, share and compare achievements and see what games are hot right now. Raptr is the first service to automatically let you know when your friends are playing games in real-time across multiple platforms, including PC, Mac, Xbox Live, Facebook, Flash and a selection of games on the Wii and PS3. Raptr also allows you to automatically share your gaming activity with your friends on Raptr, other popular social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and on major IM networks like AIM, MSN Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, ICQ, Xfire, Facebook Chat and Xbox Live.
The Raptr client software is distributed through a variety of channels in the gaming industry via its Raptr Partners Program. Current partners include game publishers Activision Publishing, THQ, Sony Online Entertainment, NHN USA, Gamescampus and Gala-Net, as well as hardware companies Razer Group and Bigfoot Networks. For more information on the Raptr Partners Program, please visit http://partners.raptr.com. Raptr was founded in 2007 by Xfire co-founder and world champion gamer Dennis Fong. The company is made up of people who love to play games and has raised over $12 million in funding from investors that include Accel Partners and The Founders Fund. For more information, please visit http://raptr.com.
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