mig33 has unveiled its new mig33 Developer Program, announcing twelve initial partners and debuting new resources for developers and brands that want to build social games and apps for mig33’s 50 million registered users and thriving virtual economy. Nazara Technologies, a leading Mobile entertainment company, has signed up as the first partner from India.
The mig33 Developer Program is in lieu of the huge opportunity for gaming developers to tap the ever-growing mobile community in India and Asia.
mig33 is opening its Social Platform, one subset of a larger mig33 Developer Program that will expand over the next several months. The mig33 Social Platform announced today leverages the API specification standardized by Japanese social networking service leader GREE, which earlier this year also allied with Tencent, one of the largest integrated Internet services providers in China.
Today’s mig33/GREE deal echoes an earlier announcement in which GREE partnered with China’s Tencent. GREE’s platform partners now offer developers reach to more than 800 million users.
The announcement was made today at a major event in Singapore that featured Daisuke Kobayashi, Director, Head of International Alliance Division at GREE; Steven Goh, mig33 CEO and co-founder; and several of mig33’s new developer partners.
“It’s a mobile developers dream,” said Goh. “In just the past two years, mig33 has almost doubled in size, forged partnerships with developers, retailers and more, and has allied with handset makers across Asia and beyond. Our focus has been on delivering mobile social entertainment within a huge delivery network that generates fun for our users and revenue for our partners.
“Today, mig33 is bringing those huge revenue and user opportunities to mobile developers everywhere.”
As an asset for GREE, Inc., which is committed to expanding its service globally, mig33’s social entertainment offerings are aimed at emerging, mobile-first markets across Asia and beyond – markets in which the mobile device is the primary means of internet access.
“The opportunity for developers and brands is huge,” said Chris Chandler, vice president of business development, mig33. “Even with 50 million registered users, many of mig33’s markets are relatively untapped, so there is still tremendous room for continued growth. In addition, mig33 sees above-average ARPUs in many, many markets. These are the primary reasons brands and developers are coming onboard: the revenue and exposure opportunities are simply amazing.”
“Nazara is delighted to be participating in the mig33 developer program, which provides us access to users in South and South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. Mobile social gaming has huge potential in emerging markets and we look forward to take our games to mobile-first users across these geographies,” said Nitish Mittersain, CEO, Nazara Technologies.
mig33’s initial developer partners include:
· Kooky Panda (http://www.kookypanda.com/)
· Softgames (http://www.softgames.de/)
· India:
· Nazara (http://www.nazara.com/)
· Indonesia:
· Agate (http://www.agategames.com)
· Anantarupa (http://www.anantarupa.com/)
· Elasitas (http://www.elasitas.com/)
· Nightspade (http://www.nightspade.com/)
· Oneb1t Solutions (http://www.onebitmedia.com/)
· Indigo Entertainment (http://www.indigo-entertainment.com/)
· The Mobile Gamer (http://www.tmgamer.co/)
· Blue Leaf Games (http://www.blueleafgames.com/)
· Springfisher (http://www.springfisher.com/mobile-development.com/)
How Developers Can Participate
mig33’s new developer program is headquartered online at http://developer.mig33.com. The first phase of mig33’s developer program announced today leverages GREE Platform and will primarily target social game applications. Within months, mig33 plans to open its own platform to developers and expand to utility, lifestyle, and entertainment applications.
Likewise, mig33’s initial focus targets Android developer partners, though mig33 will work with developers to get their games across as much of the mig33 platform as possible. mig33 is currently also available for most basic feature phones, mobile browsers, and PC browsers.
Revenue Opportunities
Today’s news opens up new revenue streams for social game developers everywhere. mig33’s virtual economy, based on credits purchased online, saw more than 40 million virtual gifts purchased in 2010. Handset makers – with which mig33 is already in talks – can pre-install the mig33 Android or Java app and generate revenue based on consumption of mig33 credits.
Game developers and VAS content providers have already been generating similar revenue streams.
Also see: One97 Communications Invests S1M$ in Singapore Based The Mobile Gamer (TMG).
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IDEAS Show is a conference and startup pitching platform that’s the highlight of the Taiwan scene’s calendar. The keynote for this year’s event is social gaming giant Zynga’s Japan country manager, Shintaro Yamada. He joined Zynga through its acquisition of Unoh, the social game developer he founded right out of college, last August. Yamada’s long experience with Japanese social games and his novel route to leading Zynga there should provide an interesting perspective, especially given Taiwan’s history and penchant for things Japanese.
