Future Ads launches PlaySushi.com casual games site

Future Ads has launched a new casual games site, PlaySushi.com, aimed at younger players.

The company already operates Gamevance.com, a casual game site for females with 12 million players. But the new sister site will have different kinds of games that appeal to younger players, including males. Irvine, Calif.-based Future Ads says that Gamevance is the sixth-fastest growing web property, based on comScore’s January data.

The new casual game hub will have thousands of games, including some that are unique to Gamevance, such as Duck Hunting and Spy Racer.

Future Ads CEO Jared Pobre said PlaySushi will differ in that it will offer developer-uploaded games and titles from top third-party publishers.

According to comScore, the online gaming category grew 27 percent during the past year to 86 million visitors by year-end 2008, with the total time spent playing online games jumping 42 percent. While other sectors crashed recently, display advertising views for online games are holding up.

Future Ads was founded by Pobre with a $500 investment in 2001. Its competitors include Yahoo!Games, AOL Games, Disney Games, MSN Games, Electronic Arts, BigFish Games, AddictingGames, and King.com. It has 38 employees and has been self-funded to date. The company says it is profitable and tripled its revenue in the past year.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.