Tapulous

Last updated
Tapulous, Inc.
FormerlyGogo Apps
Type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Computer software
FoundedFebruary 2008;15 years ago (2008-02)
Founders Bart Decrem
Andrew Lacy
DefunctJanuary 9, 2014;9 years ago (2014-01-09)
FateShut down; all games removed from App Store
SuccessorLibrary:
Disney Interactive
Headquarters,
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Bart Decrem (CEO)
Andrew Lacy (COO)
Products Tap Tap series
Owner Disney Interactive
(The Walt Disney Company)
Number of employees
20
Parent Disney Mobile
Website tapulous.com
Footnotes /references
[1] [2]

Tapulous, Inc. was an American software and video game developer and publisher headquartered in Palo Alto, California. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company as part of Disney Interactive's Disney Mobile unit. The company's most profitable products were the Tap Tap series of music games, which surpassed thirty-five million downloads. [3]

Contents

Tapulous was founded in February 2008 with the specific intention of developing software applications for the iOS platform. The company's Tap Tap Revenge gained at least one million players in less than one month of availability, and was the most-downloaded free game of the App Store in 2008. Building on the success of the game, Tapulous then heavily focused on the Tap Tap Revenge series by expansion and partnership with Universal Records. As of December 2009, the company's sales totaled nearly $1 million per month. [4] In July 2010, the company was acquired by The Walt Disney Company. On January 9, 2014, the company shut down and removed all its remaining games from the App Store.

History

With the advent of unofficial applications being distributed across the internet, Apple announced the availability of a native SDK for the iOS/iPhone platform in October 2007. [5]

As a reaction to the announcement of the SDK, Tapulous formed in January 2008 with the initial name of "Gogo Apps". Its co-founders were Bart Decrem, an entrepreneur who helped launch the Firefox browser and was the founding CEO of Flock, Inc. and Andrew Lacy, a consultant of McKinsey & Company. The company thereafter changed its name to the current one, and hired developers Nate True and Guy English to develop Tap Tap Revenge as a launch title for the App Store, although the actual release date was eventually several days after the launch of the store. [6] Meanwhile, Layton Duncan and Tristan O'Tierney developed Twinkle as another launch product. [7] Initial investment in the company was provided by Rob Theis in 2007, and later followed by $1.8 million USD, from Andreas Bechtolsheim and Roy Thiele-Sardina via HighBAR Ventures, Marc Benioff, the late Rajeev Motwani, and others. [8]

Within a month of publishing, Tap Tap Revenge, the game became one of the most popular applications available for the iOS, and had over one million players, and was installed on about twenty percent of all iPhone and iPod Touch devices. [9] In December 2008, it was announced that the game was the most-downloaded free game in the App Store for the year. [10] In April, 2009, comScore announced that Tap Tap Revenge was the most-installed app on the App Store. [11] Tapulous continued to release sequels of the game as a part of the Tap Tap series, and has since been involved with major label Universal Records in June 2009 to feature their artists in their games. [12]

On July 1, 2010, Tapulous was acquired by The Walt Disney Company and incorporated into Disney Mobile as a wholly owned subsidiary, part of Disney Interactive Media Group. [13] As of January 7, 2014, Bart Decrem officially resigned as CEO of Tapulous. This was followed days later with an announcement that the Tap Tap apps would be pulled from the iPhone store on January 10 and servers would be shut down by the company some time in February. [14]

See also

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<i>Tap Tap</i> (series) Series of video games

Tap Tap or Tap Tap Revenge was a series of rhythm games by Tapulous available for the iOS of which several versions, both purchasable and free, have been produced. The goal of the game is to tap each of the colored balls when they reach a line at the bottom of the screen. If the ball is hit on the beat, the player gains points, but if not, it counts as a miss. If a player taps the screen without a tapper on the beat, the streak will go back to 0 and a few points will be lost except for 16x. There were also "shakes", which required the player to move the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to the right, left, or backwards. The apps were pulled from the app store and had their servers shut down in February 2014.

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<i>Tap Tap Revenge</i> 2008 video game

Tap Tap Revenge, also known as Tap Tap Revenge Classic was a music game created by Nate True, and developed and published by Tapulous for iOS in July 2008. It is the first game in Tapulous' Tap Tap series. Development for the game began prior to the release of the iPhone SDK, and was originally entitled Tap Tap Revolution. The goal of the game is to tap each of the colored balls when they reach a line at the bottom of the screen. If the ball is hit on the beat, the player gains points, but if not, it counts as a miss. There are also "shakes", which require the player to move the iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad to the right, left, or middle.

<i>Riddim Ribbon feat. The Black Eyed Peas</i> 2010 music video game

Riddim Ribbon featuring The Black Eyed Peas is the first installment in Tapulous' series of music games, succeeded by Riddim Ribbon Free. It features three tracks by The Black Eyed Peas plus more tracks that can be purchased from Apple's in-app purchase. Previously Tapulous had created games in the Tap Tap series including Tap Tap Revenge, Tap Tap Revenge 2 and Tap Tap Revenge 3.

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References

  1. Lashinsky, Adam (2008-08-14). "How the Apple iPhone ecosystem works". Fortune . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  2. "Tapulous Staff". Tapulous. Retrieved 2010-01-07.
  3. Decrem, Bart (2010-07-01). "Tapping on!". Tapulous. Retrieved 2010-07-02.
  4. Madway, Gabriel (2009-12-20). Hill, Gary (ed.). "Small iPhone developer Tapulous sees big success". Reuters . Retrieved 2009-12-21.
  5. Gardiner, Bryan (2007-10-17). "Developers on iPhone SDK: OMG! ABFT!". Wired. ISSN   1059-1028 . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  6. Arrington, Michael (2008-07-15). "Tap Tap Revenge For iPhone Launches Late, Surges Up App Store Rankings". TechCrunch . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  7. O'Grady, Jason D. (2008-08-27). "Tapulous developer fired". ZDNet . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  8. Kincaid, Jason (2008-07-09). "Tapulous Wants To Be The RockYou Of Apple's App Store". TechCrunch . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  9. Kincaid, Jason (2008-07-31). "Tap Tap Revenge Approaches 1 Million Users, Music Industry Takes Notice". TechCrunch . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  10. Caron, Frank (2008-12-03). "Apple reveals most downloaded iPhone games of 2008". Ars Technica . Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  11. "Tapulous's Tap Tap Revenge Has Been Downloaded By 1 Out Of 3 iTunes Application Users". comScore . 2008-04-07. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  12. "Universal Music Group (UMG) and Tapulous Partner to Bring New Music Games to the iPhone/iPod Touch". Universal Music Group. 2009-06-10. Retrieved 2009-07-07.
  13. Schonfeld, Erick (2010-07-01). "Breaking: Tapulous Acquired By Disney". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2019-09-12.
  14. D., Luis (January 10, 2014). "Tapulous' Tap Tap series officially becomes iOS gaming history". PhoneArena. Retrieved April 28, 2014.