As the news concerning ngmoco's purchase of Freeverse is digested by the mobile gaming industry, it's been interesting to gauge the reaction of various parts of the community.
Marc Gumpinger, CEO of social networking provider Scoreloop, is a direct rival to ngmoco's Plus+ social networking platform.
He's positive about the deal however.
Pocket Gamer: Do you think the deal makes sense for ngmoco?
Marc Gumpinger: First of all I'd like to congratulate Neil [Young] and his team for this new round of funding.
We share the same passion for great products. I fully believe in good quality games that can be played with or against your friends and innovative business models. So everything I read about this deal makes a lot of sense.
Are you surprised ngmoco has now raised $40 million in funding?
$40 million is a big ticket for a hit driven business, but ngmoco have proven it can create hits. And hey - this is a pretty hot industry we're in these days.
Do you think the deal has wider significance in terms of the rise of the freemium model?
I think it's going to be less about the deal and more about the games they'll come up with. At the end of the day, gamers will tell us whether they like these concepts. But I have great confidence ngmoco will do it right.
What do you think will be the power of the combined company?
I think ngmoco has bought into great game development talent with Freeverse, so ngmoco can become an even more successful publisher.
And since ngmoco has its own social platform to engage its users - which is very important for the freemium model - and other publishers will have to come up with their own social platform as well.
By the way, Scoreloop offers exactly this: a proven white label social infrastructure that publishers can use as their own platform.
Thanks to Marc for his time.
You can read further analysis of why the deal is good for Freeverse and ngmoco here.
Interview
Contributing Editor
A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.
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