NG Squared launches its Forza live social sports gaming platform
There's an acceptance by many mobile developers that their apps won't necessarily be the sole focus of their users, even while they're playing them.
Television, social networking and day to day life can all take precedence while the games run in the background.
Few, however, make this apparent inferiority their selling point, yet that's exactly what NG Squared the start-up founded by former EA Mobile man Jurjen Söhne claims it has achieved with its new social sports platform Forza.
No relation to Turn 10's motorsports Xbox series, Forza Social Mobile Sports Games (to give it its full name) is designed to throw challenges in the player's direction while in they're in the middle of another activity.
For example, the platform - currently available on iPhone, iPad, Android and Flash with a HTML5 under development and Blackberry considered for the future - can take half-time polls in the middle of a football match, or ask players to make real time predictions as they watch game play out.
Setting the social score
It's a set up Söhne says he hopes brands will leap on the near future, presenting it as the perfect opportunity for broadcasters, football clubs or media outlets to connect with their respective audiences.
"Live social gaming is really the future of social gaming," Söhne told Mobile Entertainment.
"We have the solution in place and its pretty much ready to go, but when we get our first client, we will customise and integrate it into their back end."
However, if brands aren't willing to work with Forza, Söhne confirmed NG Squared wouldn't rule out taking the platform directly to consumers itself.
"What we want to provide is the relevance of sharing in the moment, and once we have that nailed, you get something highly engaging, and probably with a much higher ARPU than you see with social games. We can easily make double digit ARPU in dollars."
[source: Mobile Entertainment]