MySpace founder buys social gaming portal MindJolt; plans smartphone expansion

Whatever MySpace's first CEO Chris DeWolfe does gets attention

His move - together with ex-MySpace fellows Colin Digiaro, and Aber Whitcomb, and funded by Austin Ventures - to buy online social gaming platform MindJolt, was bound to raise some headlines.

Currently publishing games on Facebook, MySpace and its own Flash web portal, MindJolt has over 20 million active monthly users and support from over 1,000 developers.

Space for all

DeWolfe and his team plan to extend this reach, and the company's profitability, by signing major brand partnerships, launching virtual items and working closer with developers to create tools for single player and multiplayer social games.

The final piece of the expansion will see the company's games published on more websites and taken onto smartphones - starting with iPhone and Android we'd assume.

"MindJolt has quickly become an onramp to the internet for the world's independent game developers," said DeWolfe, CEO of MindJolt.

"We're building out the company to become the next generation platform for game developers. Our goal is to make it even easier for developers to get their games noticed and make more money from their work. At the same time we will deliver the most social and viral gaming experiences to our millions of users everywhere."