USA Network Steps Up Casual Gaming Efforts
Character Arcade Portal To Offer Social Networking Applications
By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 9/16/2009 9:44:34 AM
USA Network Wednesday announced deals with technology and game distribution companies NeoEdge, Bigpoint and Bunchball that will take users of its Character Arcade casual gaming portal beyond traditional game play and into more interactive and social networking operations.
Through its partnership with technology company Bunchball, visitors to USANetwork.com's Character Arcade gaming site - which brands popular online games like mahjong with characters from USA Network series like Monk --can now accrue points during game play as well as chat with friends and share games, according to Alexandra Shapiro, senior vice president of brand marketing and digital for USA Network.
Further, the network has aligned itself with the Facebook Connect technology which allows players to register through the popular social media site and challenge their Facebook friends to play various games.
"This gives people more incentive to play because they're more invested in the site, and the emersion into the social media space we think will mark a shift in terms of how people use the site and interact with their friends," she said.
The network will also double its current 50 casual game offerings by the end of 2009 through its partnership with game distributor NeoEdge. Along with adding games to its site, USA will also be able to distribute its network branded games through NeoEdge's own gaming distribution channels.
"Youl'll now be able to see Character Arcade games on other gaming platforms like those on Yahoo and MSN," she said.
German-based technology company Bigpoint will provide USA with a series of MMO (massively multiplayer online) gaming titles, which will provide revenue generating opportunities through micro-transaction offerings. "We think the combination of advertising with revenue from micro-transactions will help us scale our gaming business from a financial perspective," she said.
Shapiro said a beta test of the new Character Arcade offerings in August netted the online portal an average of 32 million page views, a 13% increase over July's performance. "On average people are spending about 14 minutes on the site and we're projecting that we'll hit 35 million page views in September," she said.
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