Book publisher Random House has expanded its foray into the video game market with a new mobile game called Catch the Berry. The title shows that big brands are increasingly attracted to the mobile game business as a way of remaining relevant to their customers. But even for a big company, it can still be tricky starting from scratch in a brand new market.
Catch the Berry lets you draw lines with your finger.
Catch the Berry is a simple title where you draw a line on a touchscreen, drop a berry on it, and let it fall and knock things over. The game was made by the Smashing Ideas game studio, a division of Random House. Seattle-based Smashing Ideas had been making eBooks and other interactive apps on a contract basis for Random House, so the parent firm Penguin Random House acquired the studio 2.5 years ago.
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Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. 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.
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