Scopely

Scopely is a touchscreen entertainment network founded in 2011 based in Los Angeles.

History

Scopely was founded in 2011. In February 2013, Scopely announced the first six partner studios in its developer network.[1] While working with one of Scopely's first partners, Scopely boosted New Zealand Studio Rocket Jump’s Mini Golf MatchUp game to over 10M downloads one month.[2] As of 2013, Scopely had 80 employees.[3] In 2014, Scopely brought in former Disney Executives Javier Ferreira as Chief Operating Officer [4] and Tim O'Brien as Chief Revenue Officer.[5]

Through its developer program, Scopely partners with game developers and global entertainment companies to bring distribution and monetization technology to free to play games.[6][7] To date, Scopely has released nine games, with Dice with Buddies and Mini Golf MatchUp being early successes. Scopely has had four consecutive #1 iPhone games on the US download chart.[8] In May 2015, Scopely signed a multi-year strategic partnership with Digit Games, Ireland's largest games developer.[9] In August 2015, Scopely ranked #9 on Inc.'s List of the 5000 Fastest-Growing Companies in America.[10]

Games

In January 2012, Scopely launched a #4 game in the App Store, Dice with Buddies.[11] In July 2012, Scopely launched its first fully internal game which hit the #5 spot in the App Store, Jewels with Buddies.[12] In October 2012, Scopely launched Bubble Galaxy With Buddies, which reached the number one[13] overall app in the App Store.

In April 2013, Scopely launched Mini Golf MatchUp.[14] The game was number one in the Apple App Store in 28 countries and the number one app on both the iPhone and the iPad in the U.S.[15] In September 2013, Scopely launched a #1 overall app in the App Store, Wordly. Wordly was the first game with single-player mode developed by Scopely.[16] In November 2013, Scopely launched the only officially licensed Skee-ball game, Skee-ball Arcade which reached the #1 overall App in the App Store.[17]

In June 2014, Scopely launched Slots Vacation, a top-50 grossing game in the App Store.[18] In July 2014, Scopely acquired Space Inch and Andy Ross’ Disco Bees and added Make it Rain to Scopely’s ad network.[19] In April 2015, Scopely partnered with Hasbro to launch the only officially-licensed Yahtzee game Yahtzee With Buddies on iOS,[20] Android[21] and the Apple Watch.[22][23] Yahtzee with Buddies saw 1 million downloads in the first four days and over 10,000 downloads an hour.[24]

In August 2015, Scopely partnered with The Walking Dead series creator Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment Skybound Entertainment to create The Walking Dead: Road to Survival, the first free-to-play mobile game based on the wildly popular graphic novels. The game saw 4M downloads in a week, hit the Top 25 Grossing Chart on the Apple Store and became the 6th consecutive #1 game released by Scopely.[25][26][27][28][29]

Funding

In 2013, Scopely raised[30] a seed round of $8.5 million. Investors included: New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Anthem Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Felicis Ventures, Greycroft Partners, former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel, TechStars CEO David Cohen, Factual CEO Gil Elbaz, Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow, ShoeDazzle CEO Brian Lee, Burstly CEO Evan Rifkin, LiveRamp CEO Auren Hoffman, Demand Media President Michael Blend and former Techstars NY Managing Director David Tisch along with numerous other angel investors.[31]

In 2014, Scopely raised a $35 million Series A Funding Round[32][33][34] from investors including Evolution Media Capital, Highland Capital Partners, SVP of Media at GoPro Zander Lurie, CEO of Dun and Bradstreet Credibility Corp Jeff Stibel, Former CEO of AT&T David Dorman, and CEO of Oculus VR Brendan Iribe, amongst others. Existing investors participating included Greycroft Partners, The Chernin Group, Anthem Venture Partners and Sands Capital.

As of 2015, Scopely has raised $43M to-date.

References

  1. Thompson, Mike. "Scopely partners with five studios for developer network, including Double Fine". InsideSocialGames. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  2. Shu, Catherine (21 May 2013). "Scopely Boosts New Zealand Studio Rocket Jump's Mini Golf Matchup To Over 10M Downloads In A Month". Techcrunch. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  3. Lori, Kozlowski. "Mobile Entertainment: A Startup Network For Interactive Play". www.forbes.com. Forbes. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  4. Shields, Mike (4 April 2014). "Hot Mobile Games Company Scopely Nabs Former Disney Executive". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  5. Jordan, Jon. "Ex-Disney Mobile exec Tim O'Brien joins Scopely as CRO". www.pocketgamer.biz. PocketGamer. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  6. Gaudiosi, John. "Scopely Lures New Game Developers To Android". Tegrazone. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  7. LaPorte, Nicole (24 September 2013). "Scopely finds hit apps the same way Hollywood lands blockbusters". Fast Company. Retrieved 11 October 2013.
  8. Dean, Takahashi. "How Scopely is building a hit factory, one mobile game at a time (interview)". www.gamesindustry.biz. GamesIndustry. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  9. Takahashi, Dean. "Scopely teams up with Ireland's Digit Game Studios to grab bigger slice of $30B mobile game market". VentureBeat. VentureBeat. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  10. "Inc. 5000 List of Fastest-Growing Companies in America". Inc. IncMagazine. Retrieved 18 August 2015.
  11. Dice With Buddies Website. "Dice with Buddies". www.withbuddies.com. Scopely. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  12. WithBuddies. "Jewels with Buddies". www.withbuddies.com. Scopely. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  13. "Bubble Galaxy with Buddies Ranking". Appannie. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  14. Jordan, Jon. "Following Mini Golf Matchup's success, Scopely adds Darion Lowenstein as games VP". Pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  15. "MiniGolf Match Up Ranking". Appannie. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  16. "Wordly". www.withbuddies.com. Scopely. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  17. "Skeeball". www.withbuddies.com. Scopely. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  18. "Slots Vacation". Apple iTunes. Apple. Retrieved 4 July 2014.
  19. Shaul, Brandy. "Scopely Announces Publishing Partnership with Make it Rain Developer Space Inch". Inside Mobile Apps. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
  20. "iTunes App Store". iTunes App Store. Apple. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  21. "Google Play". Google Play. Google. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  22. Dean, Takahashi. "Yahtzee with Buddies Brings the Popular Family Dice Game to Mobile and to Apple Watch". Venture Beat. Venturebeat. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  23. Shaul, Brandy. "Scopely Launches Yahtzee With Buddies on iOS, Android". SocialTimes. AdWeek. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  24. Diaz, Justin. "YAHTZEE With Buddies Reaches More Than 1 Million Downloads In The First Four Days". AndroidHeadlines. Android Headlines. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  25. Elfring, Mat. "'The Walking Dead: Road to Survival' Hits the Top 25 Grossing iOS App Charts". ComicVine. ComicVine. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  26. Tylwalk, Nick. "The Walking Dead: Road To Survival Out Now On iOS, Android". Fansided. Fansided. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  27. John, Gaudiosi. "Kill zombies on your phone with a 'The Walking Dead' mobile game". Fortune. Fortune. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  28. Jenna, Pitcher. "THE WALKING DEAD: ROAD TO SURVIVAL GAME AVAILABLE ON IOS, ANDROID". IGN. IGN. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  29. Brandy, Shaul. "Mobile Game Roundup: Bullet Boy, Feed My Alien and More". Adweek. Adweek. Retrieved 28 August 2015.
  30. Cutler, Kim-Mai. "Confirmed: Scopely's New $8.5M Funding Round Was Not Wrapped In Bacon". Techcrunch. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  31. Carney, Michael. "Scopely Raises $8.5M, Doesn't Want to Reveal What It's Building (But I Will)". PandoDaily. Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  32. Ha, Anthony. "Scopely Raises $35M For Its Mobile Gaming Platform". TechCrunch. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  33. Spangler, Todd. "Mobile-Games Startup Scopely Raises $35 Million Led by Evolution Media, Highland Capital". Variety. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  34. Takahashi, Dean. "Scopely nabs $35M to build its mobile gaming 'touchscreen entertainment network'". VentureBeat. Retrieved 17 November 2014.

Further reading

External links

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