Kongregate Bought By GameStop
American video game retailer GameStop has bought Flash games site Kongregate. In a video over on the Kongregate site, co-founder Jim Greer gives details of the agreement, and what it means for the future of Kongregate and its users.
From what Jim says, not much will really change. The recently started GameStop rewards program - called PowerUp - will be integrated into the site, allowing players with amazing scores and achievements to win money prizes. The site will also soon lose the 'beta' tag with has been sat next to the logo for a rather long time. The revenue sharing scheme will still be in place and apparently completely untouched, so contributors can still earn their keep.
Jim is keeping the finer details underwraps for now, at least - he says that the amount GameStop paid for the site is "confidential". Hopefully a boost from Gamestop will allow even more great indie games to start popping up there soon. Check the official (and rather silly) announcement here.
Comments
"But I *LOVE* Kongregate!
We love you too, and so does GameStop! We decided to accept GameStop's offer because they love us and love you, and want us to continue to be one big, happy family. "
That love thing is always followed by...
Posted by: Stimpson J. Cat | July 27, 2010 5:29 PM
I hope, there's an end now with these particular games (Dreamland, Ceasary and too many others). They are all from the same company, are betas and have many bugs. They always get badges too and bring hours of the boring same. And if You are a higher level, these 'energy points' deplete more faster, but You may always buy more. Why are people so dumb? Why do they buy every crap, when someone tells them: "This is so cool. Get it while it's still hot!"
Unbelievable!
And Gamestop is on my Deathnote too...
Posted by: anonyamous | July 27, 2010 6:47 PM
"However since GameStop has over 6,000 stores and a lot of customers, it's pretty darn likely your games will be seen by even more people"
I'm not sure what to make of that.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 27, 2010 6:51 PM
Aye, way too often, they give games badges that should go into oblivion. The gazillionth rehash of Epic Battle? Been there, done that, got my ass bored off. Doesn't need any badges. Same with 3/4th of the games there that do get them.
Posted by: Anonymous | July 27, 2010 6:52 PM
@Anon that doesn't know what to make of it: Doesn't that mean they're going to sell free Flash games in their stores?
Posted by: Anonymous | July 27, 2010 7:27 PM
They just give badges to the popular games for the most part. For games that end up on multiple sites, one of the ways they can try to get people to play it on kongregate is by giving it badges.
Posted by: Chetyre | July 27, 2010 8:05 PM
Kongergate is somehwat unique in that it theoretically supports web games other than flash. I hope they keep this policy, because I really dislike the Flash platform.
Posted by: Artemus Harper | July 27, 2010 8:07 PM
I hope this is another nail in Flash's coffin.
Posted by: . | July 27, 2010 9:44 PM
Despite what Apple and the HTML5 hype wants you to believe, Flash isn't going away anytime soon.
Get over it.
Also, this deal kind of sucks.
Posted by: Bob | July 27, 2010 10:25 PM
@period (I guess)
I'm not sure what's so bad about Flash, though. It's given us some pretty amazing experiences, thanks to various talented developers. And there are some brilliant uses of Flash animation out there, too.
What would be used for such games and animations if Flash were gone? Unity? I suppose I could see that, but the problem there is that Unity isn't as accessible to low-end computers as flash is.
A friend of mine has a netbook that can do flash but not Unity.
So I could really see a use for flash, still. I'm hoping it'll have a long and fruitful life ahead of it. I have a mid-range computer, so I'm fine, and the geek with the 'pimp rig' is going to guffaw at flash, but for bringing games to the masses... well, I'm glad flash exists.
It's awesome to be able to link fringe, strange games to people who don't normally play games. Hoshi Saga usually gets a lot of smiles from my non-gamer friends.
Posted by: Wulf | July 27, 2010 10:34 PM
EVERYONE HEAD OVER TO SILVERLIGHT BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous | July 27, 2010 10:43 PM
This could either be pretty cool, or really, really bad. I certainly wouldn't mind the possibility of earning points that I could spend at gamestop (which might lure me into a physical store again) by playing games on kongregate. On the other hand, one of my old favorite websites, howstuffworks, was completely destroyed when the discovery channel bought it, and I haven't been back there in a loooong time. Here's hoping that gamestop doesn't come out with a big list of "improvements" to be made to the site.
Posted by: Steve | July 28, 2010 2:43 AM
Well this sucks. Whenever something like this happens, the site goes down the shitter. But it actually does see improvements for a year or 2! .... but then goes downhill faster than an avalanche happens.
Well, here's me hoping that this doesn't happen... but knowing gamestop, it's most likely screwed.
Posted by: David | July 28, 2010 3:00 AM
I've been hoping and expecting for a while now, that Kong would get bought out by a respectable outfit. I never saw this coming honestly and I am a little disappointed. Kong is a great site and the last thing it needs is misguided corporate directing.
As noted before, what _do_ they mean by more people seeing our games due to their store presence?
Posted by: adamwolf | July 28, 2010 3:48 PM
"I'm not sure what to make of that."
It means they will be marketing Kongregate in/along with the Gamestop retail locations, which will bring in more gamers (presumably).
Posted by: JasonY | July 28, 2010 8:47 PM