Type | Private |
---|---|
Industry | video games, social network service |
Founded | 2009 |
Headquarters | , |
Key people | Henning Kosmack, CEO Mark Gazecki, Chairman |
Number of employees | 55 [1] (2021) |
Website | http://www.megazebra.com/ |
MegaZebra is a game development company located in Munich, Germany. The company develops free-to-play games for social networks like Facebook and mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. As of July 2018, the company employs 55 people. [2]
MegaZebra pioneered the social gaming space in Europe in late 2008. [3] Behind MegaZebra is the team around Henning Kosmack (CEO) and Mark Gazecki (Chairman). [4] Since then, MegaZebra developed several cross-platform games for mobile devices and social networks like Facebook. [5]
In September 2009 the company got backed by the founders of Web.de through Kizoo Technology Ventures. [6]
With Mahjong Trails [7] they launched their first game, reaching more than two million monthly players in January 2011. [8] Today the game has still more than 2 million monthly active players. [5]
In March 2011 MegaZebra raised ‘multiple millions Euros’ [9] in a second round of funding, led by Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures. Furthermore, Kizoo Technology Ventures participated again, alongside private investor Markus Stolz. [10]
With Gaute Godager, founder of Funcom, and Jürgen Goeldner, two Gaming veterans joined the company`s board of directors in January 2012. [11]
Both have a long-standing experience in the gaming sector. Apart from Goeldner and Godager, the MegaZebra board consists of Nigel Grierson from Doughty Hanson, Matthias Hornberger from Atevia, and Mark Gazecki of the founders. [12]
MegaZebra launched its second hit game Solitaire Castle in late 2011. Following in the footsteps of Mahjong Trails, it reached more than 1.5 million monthly active users in October 2012. [13] and reached more the 2 million user per month in January 2013. [5]
1 year later MegaZebra launched Suburbia, which reached 2 million MAU in early 2014. With Suburbia, MegaZebra was the first company to combine episodic, TV-style content with simulation game mechanics. but you can only complete up to episode 5 episode 6 has been in development for about 4 years [14]
MegaZebra’s latest game Solitaire Chronicles is the first cross-platform title, that is available on the web and on mobile devices. Recently it won the Tabby Award in the category Best iPad game: Cards, Casino and Dice. [15]
According to AppData, in January 2011 MegaZebra is one of the top 25 fastest growing developers on Facebook, [16] reaching almost 4 million monthly users and is with more than half a million daily active users, [17] among the Top 3 European developers in terms of daily active users.
With Mahjong Trails and Solitaire Castle, MegaZebra has now two games exceeding the 2 million monthly active user mark. [5]
In 2015 Solitaire Chronicles, the first mobile game of the company, won the Tabby Award for the category “Best iPad game: Cards, Casino and Dice”. [15]
A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a hardcore game, which is targeted at hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They generally involve simpler rules, shorter sessions, and require less learned skill. They don't expect familiarity with a standard set of mechanics, controls, and tropes.
Big Fish Games is a casual gaming company based in Seattle, with a regional office in Oakland, California, owned by Aristocrat Leisure. It is a developer and distributor of casual games for computers and mobile devices. It has been accused of knowingly deceiving customers into signing up for monthly purchases without informed consent. It was also the subject of a class action lawsuit over its app Big Fish Casino, resulting in a settlement of $155 million after a federal appeals court ruled that it constituted illegal online gambling.
The Meet Group, Inc. owns several mobile social networking services including MeetMe, hi5, LOVOO, Growlr, Skout, and Tagged.
King.com Limited, trading as King and also known as King Digital Entertainment, is a Maltese video game developer and publisher based in St. Julian's, Malta that specialises in social games. King gained fame after releasing the cross-platform title Candy Crush Saga in 2012, considered one of the most financially successful games utilising the freemium model. King was acquired by Activision Blizzard in February 2016 for US$5.9 billion, and operates as its own entity within that company. King is led by Riccardo Zacconi, who has served in the role of chief executive officer since co-founding the company in 2003. Gerhard Florin took over Melvyn Morris's role as chairman in November 2014. As of 2017, King employs 2,000 people.
Zynga Inc. is an American social game developer running social video game services and founded in April 2007 with headquarters in San Francisco, California, United States. The company primarily focuses on mobile and social networking platforms. Zynga states its mission as "connecting the world through games."
Booyah was a social web and mobile entertainment company. The development team drew its experience from the consumer web and social gaming space and entertainment studios such as Blizzard Entertainment, Activision, EA, and Insomniac Games. Booyah was financed by Accel Partners and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers iFund.
Spil Games is a Dutch video game developer based in Hilversum. The company publishes free-to-play games for Android and iOS devices, as well as for the Facebook Platform.
Playdom was an online social network game developer popular on Facebook, Google+ and Myspace. The company was founded in the San Francisco Bay Area by University of California, Berkeley graduates Ling Xiao and Chris Wang and Swarthmore College graduate Dan Yue. In 2009, the market for games played on social networking sites was valued at $300 million, consisting mostly of online sales of virtual goods.
Wooga is a mobile-first game developer in Berlin, Germany. The company develops free-to-play mobile and social games for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets and social networks like Facebook. It is the world's 5th-biggest game developer on the Facebook platform as of March 2014.
CrowdStar is a developer of Facebook and mobile games, based in Burlingame, California, United States and Dublin, Ireland. The company has developed several titles for the Facebook platform, with some of its most popular titles being "Happy Aquarium", "Happy Pets", "Wasteland Empires" and "It Girl", and a number of titles on mobile for the iOS, Android and Windows Markets, including "Design Home", "Fish With Attitude", "Phuzzle", "Top Girl", and Covet Fashion.
Jam City, Inc. is an American video game developer based in Culver City, California. The company was founded in 2010 by Chris DeWolfe, Colin Digiaro, Aber Whitcomb, and Josh Yguado. Jam City has nine studios located in the United States, Canada, South America, and Europe. As of 2021, it employs 825 people. Netmarble is the largest shareholder in Jam City. As of 2021, Jam City's games have 31 million monthly active users and 1.3 billion total downloads.
Game Insight is a developer and publisher of free-to-play mobile games and social-network games, headquartered in Vilnius, Lithuania. The company was founded in 2009 in Moscow and is being run by Anatolijs Ropotovs as the CEO, with former founder Alisa Chumachenko stepping down in 2014. Game Insight is known for its free-to-play games for iOS, Android, Windows Store, such as Paradise Island, Airport City, The Tribez. Game Insight developed the first hidden object game for Facebook, Mystery Manor. Game Insight's portfolio includes more than 45 free-to-play games, including mobile games for Google Play, App Store, Windows Store, Amazon AppStore, and games for social networks, such as Facebook, localized in 10 languages and played in 218 countries of the world. The Company employs more than 500 people worldwide.
Pot Farm is a farming simulation social network game developed by Brain Warp Studios and owned by East Side Games. Gameplay involves planting and harvesting different strains of cannabis and manufacturing cannabis-based food items. Many of the plants, quests and achievements are named after elements of cannabis subculture.
Candy Crush Saga is a free-to-play match-three puzzle video game released by King on April 12, 2012, for Facebook; other versions for iOS, Android, Windows Phone, and Windows 10 followed. It is a variation of their browser game Candy Crush.
TicBits Ltd. is a mobile game development company based in Turku, Finland, founded in 2010 by cousins Fredrik and Niklas Wahrman. The company specializes in both original games, mainly for the iOS platform, as well as its own interpretations of classic games. In Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Finland 2013, TicBits was placed third in the Rising Stars 2013 list. In July, 2016 Ticbits was acquired by ASX-listed mobile game developer Animoca Brands for 5.4 million AUD.
Storm8 Inc. is a mobile social game developer founded in 2009 by former Zynga designer, Garrett J. Remes, as well as former Facebook engineers, including Perry Tam, William Siu, Chak Ming Li, and Laura Yip in Redwood Shores, California. Notable games include the Restaurant Story franchise, Dragon Story, Bubble Mania, Fantasy Forest Story, Castle Story and iMobsters.
Plarium is an Israeli mobile, social, and web-based game developer and publisher, known for Massively multiplayer online games, including Raid: Shadow Legends, Vikings: War of Clans, Terminator Genisys: Future War, Soldiers, Inc., Sparta: War of Empires, Stormfall, Total Domination, and Throne: Kingdom at War. Founded in 2009, Plarium is headquartered in Herzliya, Israel with offices in Israel, the United States, Russia and Ukraine. The company's social games are available on Facebook, Vkontakte, Odnoklassniki and Mail.Ru, and its mobile games are available on iOS and Android devices.
Arjun Sethi is an American internet entrepreneur, investor and executive. He is co-founder and partner at venture capital firm Tribe Capital. He previously was partner at Social Capital and served as an executive at Yahoo! where he launched Yahoo! Livetext. Before that, he was co-founder and CEO of MessageMe and he was CEO of Lolapps, the developer behind Ravenwood Fair.
Lolapps was a developer and publisher of social games on the Facebook platform. Lolapps was best known for creating Ravenwood Fair with John Romero which had 25 million players worldwide.
The popularisation of mobile games began as early as 1997 with the introduction of Snake preloaded on Nokia feature phones, demonstrating the practicality of games on these devices. Several mobile device manufacturers included preloaded games in the wake of Snake's success. In 1999, the introduction of the i-mode service in Japan allowed a wide variety of more advanced mobile games to be downloaded onto smartphones, though the service was largely limited to Japan. By the early 2000s, the technical specifications of Western handsets had also matured to the point where downloadable applications could be supported, but mainstream adoption continued to be hampered by market fragmentation between different devices, operating environments, and distributors.