Coming appropriately on the heels of the news that Facebook’s Messenger will be adding games to its App store, Palringo, the self-proclaimed “world’s largest network of mobile gaming communities," has announced today that it has acquired Finnish game developer, Tribe Studios. This deal makes perfect sense when you consider the goals and strenghts of each company: Parlingo has built its business primarily around selling chat-based games (85% of the company’s revenue now comes from its games), and Tribe Studios (which in 2014 was selected as one of the most investable startups in Europe) has made its name with its patented “Dramagame" technology, a technology that Tribe Studios uses to build massively emergent multiplayer storylines that have communication, primarily chat interaction, at their core.
So, considering that both companies use chat interaction as a means of developing multiplayer game experiences, this merge makes absolute sense and will probably allow Palringo, which already has a native iOS app, to cast its net even wider and offer more complex gameplay experiences than it already does. I find it fascinating how companies whose initial focus was communication – like Palringo and Facebook – are looking for new ways to create gaming experiences that stem from their social capabilities. On the one hand, it’s a no-brainer really; “light" multiplayer games have exploded with the help of mobile (Words with Friends is a great example), and as more and more people enter the mobile age, the player base for such social multiplayer games will continue to expand. On the other hand, though, the popularity of these kinds of games has been waning, as Zynga has found out to its detriment. I’m interested to see how an “integrated community games platform," which is Palringo’s goal, will look in the near future. It remains to be seen whether companies like Palringo can move from simple to more complex gaming experiences and can utilize real time messaging and other social tools to provide unique mobile games.
