Print
Email
Print Edition Stories
MHT's Galen Moore: Service allows customers to pay taxi via cell phone
In their own words: Chris Dyl, CTO, Turbine Inc.
NECN: Scvngr tours explore cities, campuses by cell phone
Forget what you learned in high school hallways. According to Jeff Anderson, the gamer dork and the football player have a lot in common. In fact, the former Turbine Inc. CEO is betting they may sometimes be the same person.
Launched last year as Play Hard Sports Inc., Anderson’s new company early this year renamed itself Quick Hit Inc. in preparation for its beta product launch later this year. It is a football game that combines fantasy football strategizing with live action graphics, and, Anderson said, it applies to sports what he learned building massively multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online.
The popularity of social games has changed the definition of a gamer, according to Anderson. “You have a guy who plays fantasy football. You ask, ‘Are you a gamer?’ He says no. He’s totally a gamer,” Anderson said. “You have a woman playing Diner Dash 15 times to get points on Pogo. Is she a gamer? She’s totally a gamer.”
Set to launch in beta this September, Quick Hit makes each player a coach, trading players and calling plays that then play out in live-action graphics. Anderson said the game will draw in the casual player, but provide the avatar-building, replayability and social organization that typically characterize MMORPGs — for example, by allowing players to accumulate skill points, and set up leagues, seasons and playoff tournaments. Those events can, like many fantasy leagues, run concurrently with the pro football season.
The company, which has raised $13 million in venture funding from Valhalla Partners, TriplePoint Capital and New Enterprise Associates, will offer its game free online. It plans to make money by selling advertising and through a micropayment system that converts dollars into “quick cash” points for buying and selling players, and buying team improvements like play books, equipment or refreshments.
The ad revenue model comes straight from pro football, Anderson said. “I spend a lot of time just trying to integrate the simple and very compelling ideas they have back into the product.”
RSS Feeds
Comments
Please Login/Register to post comments.
No comments have been added or approved.