I’m not usually a big gamer, but I’ve been hooked on a few. The best games create an immersive experience that puts you in another world–you almost forget that you’re playing a game. It’s a lot like watching a great tv show or movie, which is why shows and movies often get turned into games. The world has already been created. Why not let people play in it on their own? That’s exactly what Disruptor Beam allows. They’re based in Framingham, MA, and they’re aiming “to create the most fan-centric game company in the world.” The company’s focus is on mobile/web games, and they’ve started out by working with some pretty big names.
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It wasn’t long ago that words like “builder,” “maker,” and “product” were reserved for talking about real, tangible things. Today it seems that those are all buzzwords used to talk about the production of web sites, apps, and other digital goods. There are all kinds of companies making software products, and one with a very interesting model is Betaworks. They’re a New York, NY based company whose “ideas, people, capital and data are united in an imaginative way that enable us to create beneficial and transformative products for the socially connected world.” Their goal is to define the future of media with their products, and they’re off to a good start.
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I’m not a big gamer, but when I do play games on my mobile devices, they’re usually pretty simplistic. Some people prefer a more immersive experience–they take mobile gaming seriously. Those people probably like the games from Gameloft. They’re a New York, NY based company that allows its “fans to play games anywhere, anytime, and on any digital platform.” In fact, more than one million Gameloft games are downloaded every single day. That’s what happens when you develop great games in-house while at the same time you’ve “built the world’s largest distribution network” (for games of course).
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I spent last night in Las Vegas as a stopover on the way to somewhere far more relaxing. I’d never visited Vegas before, but everything about it reminds me of a cheesy game show. It’s not really my thing–if I wanted that, I’d just turn on GSN (aka Game Show Network). In case you’re not familiar, GSN “is a multimedia entertainment company that offers original and classic game programming and competitive entertainment via its 77-million subscriber television network and online game sites.” The company is headquartered in Santa Monica, CA and also has offices in New York, NY, Waltham, MA, San Francisco, CA, and a few other cities. GSN has been around for almost 20 years now, and they’ve expanded on what used to be mostly rerun based programming with original game shows and tons of online games.
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I can’t remember the last time that I went on a real scavenger hunt–it’s been too long. There’s something really fun about the combination of physical and mental activity. The problem is that a scavenger hunt is only fun if someone else sets it up for you. Occasionally there will be citywide events that challenge teams to trek across the city hunting for clues, but those can be kind of overwhelming and they don’t happen all that often. What if you and your friends want to do a scavenger hunt right now? You can try Stray Boots. They’re a New York, NY based company that offers scavenger hunts and interactive walking tours of a variety of cities through your mobile phone. It sounds like a pretty cool way to explore a city whether you live there or are just visiting.
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I’ve read plenty of articles about how technology is making kids dumber. Video games, Facebook, and text messaging are usually the culprits. I’m more interested in how technology is making kids smarter. My expectations for kids who are currently in elementary school are through the roof because of the tools they and their teachers have access to. Wireless Generation is a Brooklyn, NY based company that is at the forefront of education technology. The company was founded by two Rhodes Scholars who “shared a passion for technology and an interest in what it could do for K-12 teachers.” Within ten years they built this passion into a company that was sold for $360 million. That’s what’s cool about the education market–you can feel like you’re doing good and still play in a market with big money.
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Job searching these days feels a lot like playing the lottery. There’s all this hope of being that one in a million winner, but in the end you slowly get demoralized as the odds play out. But there’s one surefire way to win the lottery. Be the lottery. (So I guess it follows that one surefire way to get a job is to be the employer. That’s what I did. Entrepreneurship FTW!) Or you can be contracted by the lottery. That’s what GTECH is. They’re a Providence, RI based “gaming technology and services company, providing innovative technology, creative content, and superior service delivery.” They call themselves “architects of gaming,” which seems pretty accurate considering that they’re involved in pretty much every part of designing and developing gaming products.
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There’s no doubt that Japanese companies have been and continue to be leaders in the gaming industry. Nintendo, Sega, and Sony are some of the names that you’re most likely to recognize, but it’s very clear that the old guard of gaming is facing stiff competition from upstarts like Zynga and ngmoco that are focusing on mobile and social gaming. While Japan has historically been big on console gaming, they’re not missing out on this trend. GREE is a Japanese that is fervently entering the U.S. market in order to grow a business that generated $1.7 billion in revenue last year. GREE is unique in that their U.S. based branding has been more about hiring than games. They’ve opened a San Francisco, CA office that they’re promoting heavily with billboards, referral bonuses, and even Google AdWords campaigns. They also acquired a company called OpenFeint to speed along the growth.
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While I’m not a serious gamer, I definitely enjoy playing casual games on my iPhone and iPad. Although the App Store does offer recommendations, I find that it’s still hard to find good games. Instead I rely on getting recommendations from people I know–namely my girlfriend’s 10 year old sister. I watch what she’s playing, and if it looks fun, I buy the app. Then I can try to top her score and talk smack even though I can’t come close. Games are inherently social (even though gaming can become super anti-social), so it’s no surprise that gaming companies are bringing mobile and social gaming together. One of the big players in the industry is ngmoco. They’re based in San Francisco, CA, and their name is pronounced “en-gee mo-ko” (apparently it’s an acronym for Next Generation Mobile Company). ngmoco is all about building a social entertainment company in a time when “there will be more iOS/Android devices shipped than PCs/notebooks.” It makes sense.
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Pi Day is one of my favorite holidays. Not only is it super geeky, but you get to celebrate by eating pie. I’ve been trying for years to find a pie company with internship opportunities, but haven’t been successful. In past years we’ve taken a look at Pi Media and The Mathematical Association of America for pi-related internships. I almost forgot about Pi Day this year, and I was already going to write about Orbotix, but then I realized that they couldn’t be more perfect for the holiday. They’re a Boulder, CO based company that I found out about on Brad Feld’s blog, and they are revolutionizing the simplest and best toy ever created–the ball. Their first product is called Sphero, and it’s a robotic ball that you can control with your smartphone. It has the potential to be the next big Christmas blockbuster toy, but even if it’s only popular with geeks and cat owners, I think it will sell a bunch.
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The other day I read a fascinating article about a Canadian guy who figured out how to determine whether scratch-off lottery tickets would be winners… without scratching them off. He decided not to take advantage of his discovery, because he realized he made more money as a statistician then he would have made taking advantage of the flaw. When he tried to tell the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, they thought he was some crackpot and ignored him. Finally, he got their attention when he sent them 20 tickets with predictions of their outcomes—he was right on 19 out of 20 of them. The article mentioned the names of a few U.S. based companies that work in the scratch-off lottery games, and I instantly wondered whether they had any internship. One of those companies is Scientific Games, which is headquartered in New York, NY but appears to be operationally based in Alpharetta, GA. Lotteries in the U.S. are a $50 billion market, and Scientific Games is “the primary instant ticket provider for 8 of the top 10 U.S. lotteries.” It may not seem as though there is a lot of room for innovation in lottery games, but Scientific Games has consistently proved otherwise.
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Because my business is almost entirely online, I’m always meeting new people through e-mail and social networks. Eventually, I end up meeting many of these people in real life. I guess that’s becoming more and more normal, but I know that plenty of people are still weirded out by people who meet online. Not the people who use Tagged, which is “social network where the focus is on meeting new people.” The company is based in San Francisco, CA, and they made the Inc. 500 with 637% three-year growth and $22.7 million in revenue. It may not be Facebook, but Tagged has 100 million users and gets 4 million daily unique visitors. By offering features like “social games, friend suggestions, browsing profiles, group interests and much more,” Tagged has created a unique online environment for making new friends. It seems to be paying off for them.
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