RealNetworks tallies game deals with Mattel, King.com and Lifetime TV
RealNetworks Inc. has chalked up online casual and skilled games development and marketing deals with Mattel Inc., Lifetime Television and King.com. The parent of RealArcade also is offering access to Sodoku.com, the popular sequential number brainteaser.
In its agreement with Mattel, Real Networks, which is the parent of RealPlayer Music Store, No. 94 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, will develop, publish and distribute Scrabble, UNO and several Mattel game titles for downloadable PC and online play worldwide. The deal excludes the U.S. and Canada for Scrabble.
RealNetworks develops brand titles via its design studios GameHouse and Zylom. Real’s experience and understanding of the casual gaming market will help Mattel “expand our efforts in this arena,” says Cynthia Neiman, vice president, marketing at Mattel Games.
The first game titles of the partnership are expected in mid-2008.
“Games like Scrabble and UNO are enjoyed by families all over the world,” says Harold Zeitz, senior vice president of games for Real. “Making these games available online is a natural fit as people begin to look first to the computer for entertainment. Through this partnership, they will find the Mattel classic games they grew up with now on the PC.”
RealNetworks also has formed a multi-year partnership that will integrate gaming content across Real Network and King.com gaming portals. The syndication agreement makes King.com the exclusive provider of skill games for Real’s audience of more than 40 million unique monthly game players at RealArcade.com, GameHouse.com and Zylom.com, RealNetworks says.
In turn, Real becomes the exclusive provider of online and downloadable casual games for King.com’s international audience.
Real’s game players will have direct access to King.com’s skill games on RealArcade, including American Idol, Deal or No Deal, and 1 vs. 100, as well as to more traditional skill-based titles including Bejeweled, Luxor, Solitaire and Sudoku.
Skill-based games allow players to compete head-to-head with one another via the Internet for small stakes, except where prohibited by law. King offers about 60 games and is available in eight languages and seven currencies.
RealNetworks also announced a partnership with Lifetime Television to create Lifetime Presents, a series of downloadable casual games targeting the female audiences of both Lifetime Television and RealArcade. The agreement will embed ad content specifically targeting women’s “preferences and sensibilities” as they discover casual gaming online, RealNetworks says.
Lifetime Presents will be supported by on-air and online promotions across the Lifetime Television platforms. Real will run Lifetime promos within its ad-enabled games, giving consumers longer periods of free game play in exchange for viewing contextual ads that appear between levels or during natural pauses in the game.
Real boasts strong growth for in-game advertising, saying it doubled its ad-enabled game portfolio from 12 to 24 games over the past six months and provided more than 9 million ad-enabled downloads in the past year.
RealNetworks also announced that Sudoku.com has been added to its roster of casual gaming portals. Sodoku is part of a growing genre of brain-challenging games gaining popularity around the world.
RealNetworks also says it plans to introduce two new titles from its GameHouse division. Mind Medley will test player’s memories with a series of 16 brain games with familiar play patterns like Concentration and Simon. Super Collapse! Puzzle Gallery 2 tests hand-eye coordination using colored blocks, all in the name of “training the brain.”
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