“Inside of most passively consumed media experiences, you don’t have an identity. It’s not just our relationship with the players, but their relationships with each other,” Driver said. “People have found - and investors looking at the space have found also - that people value the connection they’re getting from interactive experiences. Scopely’s players are spending 80 minutes per-day on games like “Star Trek Fleet Command,” “MARVEL Strike Force,” “Scrabble GO” and “YAHTZEE with Buddies,” and that time spent is actually spent socially. Scopely is going to be focused on a player-centric approach rather than a device-centric one,” said Driver.įor Driver and his co-chief executive, Javier Ferreira, Scopely’s growth - and that of the total gaming industry - represents an evolution in the ways that consumers want to be entertained. “We do think there’s going to be continued innovation of new genres and consumer experience and more convergence and cross-pollination between platforms. While that doesn’t mean developing for augmented reality or virtual reality hardware yet, Driver doesn’t rule it out. It’s looking at moving more of its games between platforms desktop, mobile and consoles as games evolve to be played across those different systems. “Our belief is that over the long term the most valuable companies in this space are going to be fully vertically integrated and own proprietary technology platforms,” he said.įor Scopely, technology development is all about user retention, and developing the publishing capabilities and development capabilities that will help the company and its games stay relevant to an increasingly expanding and increasingly savvy audience of gamers.Īnd the company has an eye on the future. Scopely doesn’t shy away from developing aspects of the platform technologies that have powered Epic and Unity to their own multi-billion-dollar valuations, but it isn’t selling those tools to other companies, Driver said.

Consolidation is coming to gaming, and Jam City raises $145 million to capitalize on it

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