Big Fish Games, an online portal for both online and downloadable computer games, has closed an $83.3 million funding round led by Balderton Capital, General Catalyst Partners, and Salmon River Capital.
Big Fish Games was originally founded in 2002 as a game development studio, but gradually expanded its focus as it began distributing games created by other developers. The site now has partnerships with over 500 developers and says that their games see over one million daily downloads. The site also features a collection of online browser-based games as well as a basic social network.
The company says that it will use the money to promote global expansion. It will likely focus on its distribution platform for third party developers, as storefronts like Xbox Live have shown that gamers are becoming increasingly willing to play games developed by small-time studios.
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$83.3 million Yikes but Nice ! freebie games–> http://playum.com
Dude, I’m sorry, but your site totally sucks.
Outstanding! Hats off to the folks at Big Fish. Chalk another one up for the free to play industry. Great job guy!
Jason - have you heard any rumored revenue numbers for Big Fish?
That is an aweful large amount to be raising. I wonder if their only source of revenue is advertising?
Replying to myself- Looks as though they charge for full version game downloads
Some excellent reporting on this at the Seattle PI…
http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.....148452.asp
Including details on their revenue:
“In 2005, the company reported revenue of $8.6 million, rising to $24.1 million in 2006 and $50.8 million last year. Lewis declined to provide revenue projections for this year, though he said the business has grown at between 100 percent and 220 percent annually for the past few years. Lewis expects revenue to hit historical growth levels this year.”
This company is for real… I know the founder Paul Thelen (we worked together way way way back in the day at RealNetworks when the RealPlayer was still a great product)… Paul is super smart, and passionate about games. He was the original champion behind Real getting into the games business as well…
I suspect that Paul and the other team members took some money off the table on this deal. They built this thing up in a bootstrapped manner, profitable from day 1, and this is the first time they raised any venture money.
In some sense this is a great example of how a real business (one making real money!) doesn’t have to worry about economic downturns and “ipo windows closing”… If you are bringing in $50m in revenue and you’re profitable… your company isn’t going away any time soon.
Congrats to the Big Fish team!
Nice Job maybye 7 mil profit 10x multiple but prolly did not sell 100% so maybye a 20-30X multiple. It makes http://www.fupa.com seem like a o brainer
Seriously…did you graduate from high school? This looks like it was written by a pre-schooler. Idiot.
Congrats! They are a good company and deserve it. Another sign of how strong the casual gaming market is.
I put all my faith and future in gaming into Big Fish Games in 2007 when Real Arcade first introduced their sad excuse for a new downloader.
My congratulations to Big Fish Games and Paul Thelon! The Pond Rules!!!
Good for them! I first learned about BF a few years ago on Real Arcade. At that time I thought RA had a better sight because of there forums, but poor moderation from A Albert led to a hodge podge of old gaggles like mamamoo to bring it down. I think that BF got a huge jump when they closed the forums. They also kept bragging of the new tech and hardware they were upgrading too revamping to be the best. Ha, they totally went down hill. So, where can I buy bf stock?
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Why do these companies run the same bait and switch pricing con game as Intelius?
It’s not technically bait and switch.. but they post pricing models in their checkout pages and then dupe you into a monthly membership.
Intelius does the same thing… read the complaints on both of these companies. These amounts are so small for both companies (monthly billing from $7 to $20) that it gets blown over…
It seems to be the optimum rip off model.
Unfortunately, most people are suckers… and with one click they’re unwittingly locked into monthly subtractions from their credit card.