Today Microsoft and Arkadium, a developer of casual and social games (as well as socially casual games), announced a multi-year, multi-game publishing agreement. Microsoft Studios will bring several of Arkadium’s titles to multiple unnamed platforms over the next few years. Truth be told, the platforms have names, but the two companies just aren't sharing them yet.
Arkadium’s expertise is with highly casual Facebook and Flash games – they haven’t made of an impression in the mobile arena yet. Still, this agreement could be extremely promising. Arkadium’s best known title, Mahjongg Dimensions, is their single iPhone game of note (pictured below) and an extremely good candidate for a Windows Phone port. Dimensions basically brings the classic game of mahjong solitaire (AKA Shanghai) to the third dimension, allowing players to rotate the field of mahjong tiles as they search for matching pairs. Mahjongg Dimensions would also translate easily to Xbox Live Arcade, maybe even with Kinect support.
As for Arkadium’s hefty library of Flash games, Dethtris (pictured at top) would most appeal to the mainstream crowd. It mixes platforming with the falling block genre – kind of a reverse take on Tetris Plus. Here, players take on the role of a hapless young explorer as he runs, jumps, and climbs through bite-sized jungle-themed levels, collecting treasure and dodging giant falling blocks along the way. Dethtris could work on mobile phones thanks to its simple controls and short levels, but an Xbox Live Arcade release is even more likely. We’ve seen such a transition before with last year’s XBLA port of Fancy Pants Adventures, another Flash platformer from Armor Games and EA.
Of course, Arkadium’s press release does not mention actual titles, so that’s my own speculation. But the release does spell out the reasoning for both parties behind the deal. Arkadium wants to expand their development to new platforms, while Microsoft hungers for a piece of the social games pie. Hey, maybe the partnership will motivate the big MS to finally bring some actual social features to Windows Phone games! We can only dream…
Source: Arkadium via Joystiq. Thanks Mike to the Peck for the tip!
Head past the break for the full press release.
Arkadium Signs Multi-Year, Multi-Game Partnership With Microsoft Studios
Leader in casual and social games to develop multiple exclusive games cross-platform
New York, NY – January 4th 2012 – Arkadium, a top game development studio in New York City today announced it has signed a strategic partnership to develop casual and social games on multiple platforms to be launched by Microsoft Studios. The multi-year, multi-game partnership is an evolution of the relationship the two companies have been developing over the previous two years.
"Arkadium has a ten-year track record of developing entertaining and well-architected casual and social games," said Matt Booty, GM of Connected Experiences for Microsoft Studios. "Our team is excited to be partnering with a developer that we believe will help us entertain millions of people as we expand our reach to a broader audience."
"We are very excited to be working with Microsoft Studios to develop casual and social cross-platform experiences," said Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium. "We have been looking to strategically partner with a company that can help catapult our business and accelerate Arkadium's cross platform game development. Microsoft is the perfect partner to help us realize our growth strategy."
About Arkadium
Arkadium, creators of the largest library of casual games in the world, has been a top game developer for the past decade. The company's hit games, including Mahjongg Dimensions, are distributed worldwide to over ten million gamers per month on the web, Facebook, iPhone and iPads. A top 20 Comscore game distributor, Arkadium has been the longstanding games partner of MSN, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, ESPN, ABC, Lifetime, Discovery and many more distinguished brands. Family owned and operated, Arkadium has grown organically since 2001 to more than 100 employees in offices in New York City, Los Angeles, Toronto and Ukraine. For more information visit http://www.arkadium.com.
