Interview

Tony Pearce: Your games will 'live on GamesGrabr'

TeePee CEO on out-punching Pinterest

Tony Pearce: Your games will 'live on GamesGrabr'
A Pinterest for games?

That's how PocketGamer.biz chose to describe GamesGrabr yesterday, though according to Tony Pearce – CEO of discovery portal TeePee Games – the new platform offers much more.

As well as letting users showcase their love for their favourite games to the "pinboard style social network", Pearce believes GamesGrabr could also serve as a vital viral promotions tool for developers, helping both enthuse and expand their audience.

We caught up with – or should that be 'grabbed' - Pearce for a bit more info.

Pocket Gamer: How did GamesGrabr come about?Tony Pearce: Everybody loves a collection, especially games collections - I bet your cupboard is full of PlayStation or Xbox games. 

We wanted to create a games community where you can build your games collections online. You do this by GRABing games, images and videos from across the web using our unique GRABit button. You can follow, share, rate and play everything you grab.

Best of all, you can browse game collections created by other people. See what your friends are playing or follow other gamers with similar interests – it's a great way of discovering new games.

What kind of things do you imagine users will pin to the platform, and how can developers take advantage of this?

We don't just 'pin' in GamesGrabr, we grab. Our unique GRABit button does a lot more than just pull images or a videos from a web page - we have some unique features around GRABing that you will see when we launch. 

Ultimately GamesGrabr is all about your passion for games - whatever 'lights your fire' just GRABit into your collection. 

At launch we will have thousands of games already on the site which you can instantly play, buy and re-grab into your collections.




Via our affiliate deals already in place with our sister site TeePee Games, we have a wide choice of Facebook, online and MMO games, plus we have an affiliate deal with Apple and Amazon. 

This means you can discover, re-GRAB and download iPhone and iPad games plus you can buy physical boxed products and accessories with just one click via Amazon.

Developers will be able to create their own games collections allowing our users to follow them. Inside their collections can be screen shots, game links and details about their games. 

Our users can engage in chat directly with the developer and play or buy their games across any platform, if there are any developers out there interested in getting into our recommendation engine they can just email me.

Your press release talked of users being able to access mobile and web-based games from within GamesGrabr itself. Have you signed up many developers to support this?

We have an affiliate deal in place with Apple so we will have access to all iPhone and iPad games. 

We also have over 2,000 of the hottest online flash games available to play for free on GamesGrabr, and the platform will also be available as an app on iPhone and Android.

The app will include features such as the ability to use the camera as a barcode scanner, allowing gamers to scan boxed video-game products and upload them to their game collections on GamesGrabr, where their friends will be able to see, comment or buy the item with just one click.

What impact do you think this could have on games that get featured by users? Is this effectively a potential viral tool?

GamesGrabr aims to be the largest social network for gamers. It could be an incredible tool in taking a game viral. 

Discovering games is a big issue right now whether it’s a console, mobile, Facebook or web game. GamesGrabr is all about discovering new content from gamers that have similar interest to you, it’s not about a top 50 chart, or a promotional banner bought buy the highest bidder. 

It's real gamers collecting and playing all types of games.

What's to stop someone setting up a rival service? What are you bringing to GamesGrabr that will be unique?

When we launch we have some very exciting and innovating features.

Our GRABit button - which you install into your browser - not only allows you to grab images and videos from across the web but also has some amazing unique features which will make GRABing a lot of fun – you’ll have to wait until we launch to see it.




We have created a great recommendation engine which will offer cross platform games recommendations. For instance, you might grab and t-shirt with a Space Invaders image on it.

Our recommendation engine will then offer Space Invaders games and products or games similar to Space Invaders to the user.

We are the first to launch a dedicated 'pinboard' style social network for gamers. You could create a games board on Pinterest if you want but it’s not targeted to games or gamers or your passion for games. GamesGrabr is where your games live.
Thanks to Tony for his time.

With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font.