Comments on: Mytopia launches cross-platform casual online games

By: Roundup: Websites become more vulnerable to lawsuits, Meevee looks for buyers, and more » VentureBeat

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 05:23:35 +0000

[...] $15M round for cross-platform gaming — We recently wrote about Mytopia, which is working on connecting games across platforms like Facebook and MySpace. It’s raised about half of a $15 million first round of funding, [...]

By: Manifesto Games seeks venture round for indie games » VentureBeat

Manifesto Games seeks venture round for indie games » VentureBeat — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 20:00:47 +0000

[...] getting a wee bit repetitive writing about casual game companies (see here, here, here, here and here for our coverage). Doesn’t anybody have some other kind of [...]

By: Guy Ben-Artzi

Guy Ben-Artzi — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 01:16:44 +0000

Dean – Thanks for the coverage. It’s going to be an exciting year.

Bret – I completely agree with you. Critical mass in real-time games is tough. Companies that depend on social networks alone will be in trouble. With all the SNS hype, people sometimes forget there is a bigger world out there.

Daniel – Love your work. We share a mutual affinity for he Captain.

By: Daniel James

Daniel James — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:01:34 +0000

Ooh, we’re *huge*! Huzzah!

(I agree with Bret, 28 is a lot of people. We are just a bit bigger than that.)

By: Bret

Bret — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 08:59:51 +0000

Mytopia sounds a lot like Bunchball, a real-time casual games platform. Now known as Karma Games and Avatars on Facebook.

Bunchball is also built on Flash, also embeddable anywhere, and also cross-platform (Facebook, Bebo). It’s been around since the beginning of Facebook and has never exceeded 11000 daily active users on Facebook despite having the benefit of being one of the first apps on Facebook.

Creating a community around real-time games is hard. If their strategy is to build it on the back of social networks, then they have a difficult road ahead them. Only one real-time game has managed to have significant traction on the socnets, Zynga’s Texas Hold-em Poker.

(more on my blog: http://www.bretterrill.com)

My only other quibble: 28 employees is NOT a small company as far as the casual games space is concerned, they’re huge. They’re as big as Zynga, bigger than SGN, as about the same size as Three Rings.

By: Dangelo Costello

Dangelo Costello — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:49:03 +0000

Wonderful resource, I will share this with my colleagues, thanks!