MMO Life/MMOCluster deal
One MMO portal operator acquires stake in another.
For Immediate Release
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, Feb. 10, 2009 – Online gamers have a better place to call home. MMO Life Exploitatie B.V., operator of re¬gionalized and de¬mographically-targeted portals for massively multiplayer on¬line (MMO) and role-playing games (RPG), today announced the acquisition of a 49% stake in MMOCluster GmbH ( www.mmocluster.com), a multi-language network of portals dedicated to a wide range of popular MMO games such as World of Warcraft, Runes of Magic, Runescape, Dofus and Warhammer Online.
MMO Life’s family of portals delivers news, reviews and rich-media demos for MMOs and MMORPGs throughout Western Europe and North America, and in sev¬eral local languages. The acquisition of MMOCluster ( www.mmocluster.com), now part of the MMO Life family of companies, injects more than 80.000 active users into the portal portfolio of MMO Life.
The MMOCluster network offers advanced solutions to improve the online gam¬ing experience. MMOCluster features sophisticated guild hosting – a specialized Web hosting service designed to support online gaming communities. MMOCluster’s key services include:
• The “DKP Raidplanner,” a unique MMOCluster feature that facilitates “ra¬ids,” or simultaneous game play by as many as 50 other players, with the click of a button. DKP Raidplanner is a free feature that also organizes group forums, polls and other marketplace activities that improve game play
• Player profiling and networking that enables players to build up social ac¬tivities outside the game and stay connected with friends
• A broad variety of signature generators and achievement generators that make it possible for any user to present his or her avatar in a forum or website of the player’s choice
• User-generated content through blogging, news, articles, guides, movies and more that can serve as an important source of information for any MMO gamer
• Professional editorial content such as previews, reviews, interviews and videos developed by both the MMOCluster editorial staff and the commu¬nity of users, and that are intended to guide players through the jungle of MMO gaming
• Embedded guild hosting with easy administration and information sharing tools
Users of www.mmohub.org – MMO Life’s first portal that launched in late 2008 – will be among the first to experience the enhanced community features that result from this new partnership. Other MMO Life-operated portals will go live in the coming months.
“The partnership between MMO Life and MMOCluster is a big win for time-starved gamers who want a single hub that combines an engaging MMO expe-rience with a relevant community of users who share their passion for popular games,” said Simon Usiskin, CEO, MMO Life. “This union also expands the range of products and services MMO Life can offer to publishers, making their games much more attractive to users seeking the ultimate MMO experience.”
The collaboration with MMOCluster comes on the heels of a recent MMO Life an¬nouncement of a €1 million ($1.3 million USD) round of initial funding led by investors Klaas Kersting and Alexander Roesner of gaming pioneer Gameforge, and ex-Endemol media ex¬ecutive Pim Schmitz. MMO Life expects its new agree¬ment with MMOCluster to help accelerate growth fueled by the initial round of funding while adding significant user traffic from MMOCluster’s network. In ad¬dition to building a more enhanced community experience for users, MMO Life plans to continue scaling up the deployment of new MMOCluster features and to introduce the MMOCluster portal into additional languages.
“This agreement will enable MMOCluster to speed up its development as a com¬pany through MMO Life’s business development experience and network,” said Rolf Kloeppel, General Manager, MMOCluster GmbH. “With more features and greater engagement with MMO Life’s network of portals, we expect to generate not only more user traffic but also to deepen gaming satisfaction for users around the globe.”
About MMO Life
MMO Life was founded by Reinout Te Brake in November 2008. The company aggregates the very best MMO-related games, surrounded by rich and dy¬namic content, through MMO Life's easy-to-navigate, region-specific portals. MMO Life’s portals are the destination for casual and advanced gamers throughout North America and Western Europe. MMO Life’s first portal, MMOHub.org, delivers news, reviews and rich-media demos for teen-focused free-to-play MMOs and MMORPGs. Other portals targeting “tweens” and adults will come on line in 2009. MMO Life is based in Amsterdam.
Executives will be present at the Casual Connect conference in Hamburg, Germany, 10-12 February; and the Game Developers Conference in San Fran¬cisco, 23-27 March. To connect with MMO Life, email info@mmolife.org, or visit www.mmohub.org.
About MMOCluster
MMOCluster GmbH ( www.mmocluster.com) was founded by online games veteran Rolf Klöppel and graduate engineer Björn Falszewski in November 2008 to further develop and expand the business and to professionalize the product that was formerly known as “Guilding.net Limited”. The company develops services for Mas¬sively Multiplayer Online Gamers’ needs and launches so called “satellites”, specialized portals for all relevant MMO Games. MMOCluster currently pub¬lishes portals in English and German language and will internationalize fur¬ther within 2009. MMOCluster is based in Berlin.
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Contact:
Niels Broekhof (Europe)
Solid Ground Public Relations
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niels.broekhof@solidground.eu
Channing Barringer (USA and ROW)
Solid Ground Public Relations
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channing.barringer@solidground.eu