Spil: Ubiquity of games is key market trend

Spil Games has announced that its online title Uphill Rush 2 has now surpassed the 150 million play sessions mark since launching in August 2009 - a milestone which qualifies it as one of the company's "game heroes" and demonstrates a key industry trend that "games are everywhere."

That's according to the publisher's CEO, Peter Driessen, who told GamesIndustry.biz that he "had a good feeling it would be popular" because of the company's "deep understanding of the target group" - teens.

"First of all we created the 'worlds' of Uphill Rush 2 to mirror the typical world a teen lives in and enjoys (the beach, the shopping mall and an amusement park)," he explained. "Secondly, achievement and competition are very important to teens, which is why we have social features like posting your high score or awards - as well as being able to progress to new levels based on mastering the previous level.

"And, of course having an element of speed and control is also really important," he added, going on to note that the ubiquity of games was a major theme in the development of the games business.

"What we see as the main trend is that games are everywhere," he said. "Whether it's on social networks, or portals like agame.co.uk, or mobile devices.

"And, it's not just a specific demographic that is playing - thanks to games being free, online and easy to play they're accessible to the mass market."

The Netherlands-based company runs a multitude of free online game portals around the world, based principally on advertising revenue, with 130 million unique visitors per month.