PopCap Games, creators of infamous time sinks Bejeweled, Zuma, Bookworm and Peggle, has today become a part of the equally infamous WildTangent former spyware/bloatware casual game advertising network and digital-delivery platform.
While we don’t have any solid figures on how large WildTangent and PopCap are, financially, paragraphs like the following indicate that they’re not playing with peanuts here:
The addition of PopCap.com to the WildTangent network pushes the total number of unique gamers the company reaches worldwide to more than 50 million per month. The agreement is expected to solidify WildTangent’s standing as a top five global game property as measured by comScore when its May site traffic rankings are released next month. The partnership strengthens WildTangent’s reach against casual female gamers in the 25-54-year-old demographic. Bejeweled, PopCap’s flagship franchise, has been downloaded more than 250 million times by women alone, and has consumed an estimated 6 billion hours of leisure time since its introduction in 2001.
Big stuff, and only liable to get bigger from here on out, as WildTangent branches away from the casual and seeks inroads into the enthusiast gaming sector with its “console-like” Orb service. Assuming it exists, of course, considering they announced the platform would arrive in April and here it is May…
Full press release:
REDMOND, WA–(MARKET WIRE)–May 21, 2008 — WildTangent, the largest privately held game property in the U.S., today announced that its rapidly growing game advertising network just got a lot bigger as PopCap Games, the largest and most popular developer and publisher of casual games in the U.S., has turned over its ad sales to WildTangent.For many years, WildTangent has distributed blockbuster PopCap® titles such as Bejeweled®, Zuma(TM) and Peggle(TM) on its game portal, www.wildgames.com, as well as on the tens of millions of PCs from HP, Toshiba, Lenovo and Gateway that ship with the WildTangent game console pre-installed. Advertisers have been able to associate their brands with PopCap games on WildTangent’s owned and operated channel but can now leverage the extended reach of PopCap.com and other channels in the WildTangent network such as on the Apple iPhone.
The addition of PopCap.com to the WildTangent network pushes the total number of unique gamers the company reaches worldwide to more than 50 million per month. The agreement is expected to solidify WildTangent’s standing as a top five global game property as measured by comScore when its May site traffic rankings are released next month. The partnership strengthens WildTangent’s reach against casual female gamers in the 25-54-year-old demographic. Bejeweled, PopCap’s flagship franchise, has been downloaded more than 250 million times by women alone, and has consumed an estimated 6 billion hours of leisure time since its introduction in 2001.
“WildTangent’s sales team offers us unprecedented opportunities to further monetize the hundreds of millions of hours consumers spend on our site each year,” said John Vechey, co-founder and director of PC and online operations at PopCap. “By partnering with WildTangent, we keep our focus on developing great games while still reaping the benefits of the enormous amount of ad dollars marketers are spending in online games.”
“PopCap has created and published many of the most popular casual games and has cornered the market on the traditional casual gamer,” said Dave Madden, executive vice president of WildTangent. “Adding PopCap.com to our rapidly growing network dramatically increases the depth and breadth of advertising solutions we can now build for online marketers both in the U.S. and around the world.”
Similar agreements announced with Jagex, maker of Runescape, the most successful MMO ever (10.2 million unique monthly players), Artix’s AdventureQuest (7.9 million unique monthly players) and FreeOnlineGames.com have driven the total reach of the WildTangent network beyond that of many of the largest entertainment properties in the world. WildTangent reaches a broad demographic of gamers, enabling advertisers to run campaigns within targeted channels that reach either casual female gamers, core gamers, kids, and other audiences difficult to reach through traditional advertising. Current brands running campaigns with WildTangent include Coca-Cola, Disney, EA, Hasbro, Honda, GM, Sprint, Unilever, Kimberly-Clark, Fox, Paramount and Warner Bros.
Leading industry analyst Wanda Meloni, president of DFC Intelligence, agrees that the advertising dollars will continue to increase in the coming years. “Ad spending in the online PC gaming market is expected to reach more than $600 million by 2010, illustrating the opportunity for game publishers to maximize revenues by incorporating advertising into their business models,” Meloni said. “By partnering with the leading properties to provide a single network for advertisers looking to invest in this channel, WildTangent is driving the market forward and creating new revenue streams for the industry.”
For more information about working with WildTangent, visit www.wildtangent.com.
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