Titan games, makers of a gaming
platform that allows content and social networking sites to provide the
cash and tournaments game focused on prices, announced today it begins a
complete makeover that includes its rebranding as Playsino, with a new
direction, CEO and some new funds.
Under
his new moniker, Playsino will seek to take advantage of its traction
in tournaments and virtual rewards space and double down on a different
vertical path: social casino games. Ambitious,
Playsino is setting out to build the "casino of the world largest social
game platform" and is to appoint a new CEO to help lead the way. Brock
Pierce, who will be CEO of startup, is the Executive Director of the
Global Fund games Clearstone and a contractor series, after eight
companies and acquired 30 more in various capacities.
Pierce
played a role early in the development of virtual goods, creating
Internet Gaming Entertainment (IGE) in 2001 and Zam in 2003. In addition to new leaders, Playsino also today announced that it has led to some 1.5 million venture in a continuous cycle. The
investment was led by IDM Venture Capital, venture capital company
based in Singapore, Pacific Capital Group, Siemer Ventures and a number
of angel investors, including the Jordan Simons of PCBs and Wicks Walker
of W4 Ventures. Investors tomorrow Ventures also participated in the round.
With its new capital in tow, Playsino is setting out on a mission to build the largest social casino free to play on the Web. Pierce believes that the social game is at an inflection point, and that social casino games is the catalyst of this movement. Half
of the people on the web, or about 510 million dollars, according to
him, playing a kind of social game - an audience of game which has
increased by 71% since 2010. With the H2 Gaming
estimated that online gaming could be as much as $ 30 billion worldwide
in 2013, and the U.S. accounting for this bet $ 4.5 billion online,
total represents a great opportunity.
Social
casino games have the ability to combine the addictiveness of games
that have made Zynga an also major player in social gaming as Farmville
with the monetisation strategies more hardcore games, which Pierce
believes is a dangerous combination. The Director
General said that it focuses on the use of new capital of starting at
the stage of internal development, but that society is designed to
publish third party content and seek independent players as well. We
see therefore probably Playsino develop its own games of casino in
conjunction with the construction of a platform that allows developers
and players established to sell their games, taking a signal of
Zynga.com.
While
space is an opportunity, the grand casino and games companies are also
being moved online, and the competition will certainly increase. There
is also a lot of the attention of the Ministry of Justice and that
space is moving forward, it is likely to include a number of regulations
to protect consumers - but that can also limit the amount players are
allowed to play. According to BusinessWeek, at
least five States have already introduced legislation that would allow
people to play web poker against those in other States.
It
is a space which is very good in transition as States consider
legislation online games and its evolution can also be shaped by
regulatory constraints, but there is certainly lots of money in the
social game of casino, and Playsino wants to be a part. While
it is still early, the established game companies have an easier road
in casino games social when they see how is regulated in space, so the
boot must be prepared with some quality games addictive, if it wants to
avoid be stifled by the Zyngas and ee of the world.