Social devs unite against Zynga, EA and Playdom dominance
Applifier claims its cross-promoted titles reach 55m users
A coalition of Facebook game developers have created a "rebel alliance" designed to battle the chokehold of Zynga, EA/Playfish and Disney/Playdom on social gaming.
Concerned by the costs of advertising small games against the tall odds of break-out hits in a rich-get-richer ecosystem, Applifier is a system that cross-promotes titles within each other.
The open-to-all network now sports over 100 apps and at 55 million total users it can loosely be considered second only to Znyga in terms of player headcounts.
The network is a response to what is seen as dwindling opportunity on Facebook. "We had our games in place and the viral channel was disappearing," Everplay CEO and Appliflier boss Laakkonen told Venturebeat.
"We didn't have the funding to heavily advertise our games. And we didn't have enough games to cross promote them within our own network."
Applifier receives a cut from successful link-throughs and subsequent installs. The Finland-based Laakkonen has, however, turned his full attention to the scheme as a result of Everplay's games failing to take off.