Today Unity Technologies, the creator of Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, announced it will acquire the Helsinki-based company Applifier, a large mobile game service provider (Update – May 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link). The financial details of the acquisition have not yet been disclosed.
Applifier was founded in 2008 as a cross-promotion network for social games and applications. The acquisition will see the startup’s pioneering game replay sharing and community service, called Everyplay, become integrated into the Unity development platform (Update – May 2023: The startup seems to be no longer in business under this website, and we therefore deactivated the original link). In addition, the startup’s GameAds video advertising network will complement the free cross-promotion network currently in development for Unity Cloud.
Everyplay, which was created to let players express themselves with game replay sharing, provides developers with a unique way to acquire new players and increases retention for free. The service gives players the possibility to easily record, share and discuss extraordinary moments from their gameplay sessions, leading to authentic virality among the players’ friends and the broader audience of involved gamers. Everyplay boasts a global community of over 6 million registered mobile players and is now growing by over 1 million new users each month, with millions of shared replays from hundreds of integrated games on iOS and Android. The social game replay service will become integrated into Unity for an effortless activation of relevant features. Everyplay will continue to offer its ‘SDKs’ (software development kits) outside of Unity products and enthusiastically welcomes any developer interested in using Everyplay with their games.
The acquisition also brings GameAds, a broadly adopted video ad network, to Unity. The service is used by leading game publishers to find engaged new users and to monetise non-paying users with video ads. The GameAds video ad network and Everyplay gaming community will work side-by-side with Unity Cloud and its upcoming cross-promotion network. Together the three services will provide mobile game developers with multiple methods to grow their customer base.
Jussi Laakkonen, CEO of Applifier, commented: “The challenge for today’s developers doesn’t end with releasing awesome games – they also need to attract and retain legions of true fans. We are thrilled to join forces with Unity and, with the help of the incredible Unity community, overcome these important challenges together.”
By the way: You can find out about other interesting startups from Finland in this list.
