iPhone game developer ngmoco is announcing today its own cross-promotion publishing network fro iPhone games. The publishing network, called Plus+, will be headed up by Simon Jeffery, the current president and COO of Sega of America. Prior to Sega, Jeffery was president of LucasArts. His new title at ngmoco will be chief publishing officer. This is a major hire for the iPhone game startup, whose CEO Neil Young is also a former star executive from the console gaming world (he came from Electronic Arts).
Ngmoco is already one of the top game developers on the iPhone. Its hits include Rolando, Mazefinger, Star Defense, Topple, and WordFu. Jeffery will be running a new business for ngmoco, Plus+ Publishing. The company already cross-promotes its own games. For instance, about 15 percent of Rolando sales come from cross-promotion, according to Young. With Plus+ Publishing, outside iPhone game developers will be able to apply to become part of this cross-promotion network also.
Ngmoco will offer to publish and market iPhone games under its own Plus brand, as well as simply cross-promote other games using its own popular games and the other games which become part of Plus+ (with different revenue splits depending on the level of service). Developers who want to apply can email gamemakers [at] ngmoco [dot] com.
As part of Plus+, ngmoco is also going to launch its own iPhone social gaming network called the Plus+Network. For any game in the network, players will be able to create a single profile with friends, followers, leaderboards, a metascore across all the games, awards, play challenges, and a game catalog. (Friends are reciprocal, followers are one-way relationships). Ngmoco will roll out this social network in some of its own upcoming games, including Star Defense, Rolando 2, and a real-time first-person shooter. The social network will launch as a standalone network, but Young expects to integrate it with Facebook Connect and other existing social networks as well.
that’s huge.
ngmoco:) is on the rise. Watch out, these guys are serious; though there aren’t any numbers to quantify this, I believe they are the best studio dedicated to games only on the iPhone.
$30 million in funding, a large trendy office in SOMA, high priced executives from large companies. Selling games for 6 bucks. Good luck with that!
My bad, $15 million in funding.
By numbers, I didn’t mean sales numbers, market share, or something similar. It’s clear that they are successful. The point was that you can’t really quantify the level of overall quality of their products; I believe that they have the most high-quality games on the iPhone market, which is why I said “they are the best studio dedicated to games only on the iPhone.”
The iPhone is definitely becoming a huge player in the Gaming industry.
Sony should (and most definitely already) be shaking and scrambling. The PSP is old and antiquated device which never got traction outside of Japan – too bad, I own one and like it a lot but the games are not all that great and the iPhone is more readily available and has cheaper games.
ngmoco is a brand? how can something be a brand when 99% of people cant pronounce it? how do you pronounce it? ning-moco? do you know what moco means in spanish?
.
1. They got 15m in funding.
2. They have what I would regard as one of the best blends of execs from both old world gaming i.e. consoles and new world people from mobile etc.
3. I played the PSP go at E3, it is gorgeous and 10x easier to develop with its new SDK, plus it 100% digital distribution. I would not discount sony giving apple a run for their money.
Iphone is becoming a huge player in world . Iphone fans.
Wow, if they can steal the president of SEGA they must have something good with this Plus+Network. I just got Star Defense and it is definitely fun. They challenge system they have in the game (Facebook or twitter statuses) leaves a lot to be desired. Once this network is integrated into the game I expect it will be much better.
Guys, I bet my arm that Sega LET Jeffery go for his recent gaffes (comments on Yu Suzuki, Secret Level, and other crap), and nobody but Mr. Almost-brought-EA-to-its-knees, Neil Young, to pick him up…
Look past the hype, guys, Ngmoco is a VC-funded joyride.
NICE! LETS SEE WHAT THE FUTURE HOLDS !
http://www.yout...h?v=RBiSkBbkaAE