Last year, Israeli game startup MoMinis launched its “mega game” mobile app, PlayScape, which allows users to play lots of games in a single downloadable application. Now the company is improving the app so that it can reach many more users.
PlayScape has more than 50 games available within its Android app. But only about 10 percent of users, or 2.5 million, accessed the larger social features that linked all of the games. MoMinis is now expanding its reach by building the PlayScape experience as a feature in all of the games. That means all players in the network may access PlayScape without having to download it ahead of time.
Marketing chief Eyal Rabinovich said in an interview with GamesBeat that the change means discovery of games will be much easier and will benefit both players and game developers who contribute games to PlayScape.
“In the past, it was a separate application you downloaded after you played a MoMinis game,” said Rabinovich. “Now it is attached to each game. Developers can now get their games exposed to users in the best kind of way. We’re helping developers get free downloads at a time when marketing costs have risen.”
Available on Google Play, PlayScape offers players a metagaming, social experience where they can purchase virtual currency that can be used in any of the 50-plus mobile games. They can transfer points earned in one game to another, and the PlayScape mission wall allows players to receive guided tours as they go in and out of the games in the network.
“With this launch,” said Zvi Rabinovich, the cofounder of MoMinis, “we want to provide a better, more consistent gameplay experience, making it easier for people to find and try new games while simultaneously driving discoverability and gameplay for developers. We expect to increase both the number of players that are experiencing PlayScape and the amount of games that are integrated into it, and improve our performance on every level.”
The 2.5 million users who downloaded the original PlayScape app played twice as long and downloaded three times as many games as those who didn’t have the app (and played MoMinis games). With 100 percent of users now exposed to the PlayScape features, app downloads are expected to increase, said Rabinovich.
MoMinis was founded in 2008. The company has 6 million monthly active users across its 50 games and 1 million daily active users. Those players play 60 million game sessions a month.
MoMinis has raised $4.9 million to date from BRM Capital and Mitsui Ventures. The company was founded in 2008 and has 35 employees. Rivals include Gree, DeNA/Ngmoco, iSwifter, and others making metagame layers. It also competes with GameSalad, Unity Technologies, and others that make game development tools.
Founders include Tzach Hadar, the chief technology officer and a former member of an intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Force. Rabinovich is a seasoned engineer who previous worked at Hegde-Tech Financial Engineering and Lipman Electronic Engineering. Zvi Rabinovich, cofounder, is the vice president of research and development.