Miniclip Forms Mobile Division to Accelerate Development of Games for iPhone and Android

NEUCHATEL, Switzerland--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Miniclip.com, the world’s largest website dedicated to online games, is accelerating its mobile gaming business with the establishment of a new dedicated smartphone division. With an audience of more than 57 million casual gamers worldwide and a library of more than 600 online games, Miniclip’s newly formed smartphone games division, led by former Skype manager António Sérgio Varanda, will develop, publish and distribute its most popular online casual games for mobile operating systems. Consumers can play online versions at www.miniclip.com and then easily purchase the mobile versions on the App Store or Android Market.

“Its no secret there is an overabundance of games available for the iPhone; yet Miniclip has been able to break through the clutter and leverage our massive community of casual gamers to drive awareness and sales”

“Its no secret there is an overabundance of games available for the iPhone; yet Miniclip has been able to break through the clutter and leverage our massive community of casual gamers to drive awareness and sales,” said António Sérgio Varanda, director of the smartphone division at Miniclip. “Miniclip has spent the past nine years building the largest online destination site for gamers and establishing a trusted reputation amongst households worldwide. Now with our global games distribution platform, we have the capability to directly distribute and market Miniclip games across multiple channels including online, mobile and console.”

Miniclip has tested its cross platform marketing abilities with a handful of Miniclip game franchises available for mobile, including Fragger, Monster Trucks, Disc Pool and Monkey Kick. Proving its direct marketing model to be successful, the company has secured more than 1.9 million paid sales of its mobile games to date. Fragger for iPhone reached the overall #2 paid app position in the US App Store and #3 in the store’s overall top grossing apps. Miniclip’s car-crushing, adrenaline filled Monster Trucks Nitro II game franchise, released in April 2010, made the App Store’s Top 10 ranking and the original Monster Trucks was showcased in Apple’s international iPhone 3GS television advertising campaign. Monkey Kick, a free game released for iPhone and Android in November 2009, offers simple and addictive gameplay and has generated more than 1.7 million downloads.

Miniclip’s mobile games portfolio includes both new IP as well as some of Miniclip.com’s most successful online titles. Initial titles slated for Fall 2010 release include:

Ping Pong! – An easy-to-play favorite from Miniclip.com, players use the iPhone’s accelerometer to move the paddle and bounce the ball as many times as they can. Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch.
Fragger HD – The top-selling iPhone app that has players tossing grenades at the enemies, gets an upgrade with HD graphics, redesigned completely for the iPad.
Fragger 2 – The sequel to the top-selling original will include new types of grenades, moving enemies and many more surprises. Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad.
Candy & Clyde – Based on the successful Flash game, with over 20 mini-games that get progressively harder. Play as Candy to play fair, or as Clyde to be naughty. Platforms: iPhone, iPod Touch

About Miniclip

With more than 57MM players every month, Miniclip is the Internet’s largest website dedicated to online games. The company develops, publishes and distributes more than 600 casual and mobile games. Founded in 2001, Miniclip is privately owned and privately funded with its headquarters in Switzerland and offices in six countries. Miniclip.com is the only website to ever win the prestigious Webby Peoples Voice Award, the "Oscars of the Internet" for the Internet's Best Game Site for three consecutive years. For more information visit www.miniclip.com.