PlayHaven, an online universe of fan communities for games, today launched its innovative platform enabling virtually any iPhone game developer to instantly establish a community presence online and in-game for free. For the first time, developers can now easily claim their game communities to start directly communicating with their fans, while creating word-of-mouth buzz with iPhone gamers everywhere.
“Having passionate fans is the cornerstone of any successful game. For the first time, developers can now offer their fans a destination to share, gather, and interact," said Raymond Lau, co-founder and CEO of PlayHaven. “We want to be a true partner to game developers who are looking to establish a connection with their fans and form the base of a lasting franchise.”
PlayHaven’s online universe of communities has an aggregated audience across more than 15,000 games in the iPhone App Store. Fans share their passion for the games by creating guides, tips, reviews, and other content. They also eagerly await announcements of new releases from the developers. Any iPhone game developer can simply visit PlayHaven and claim their fan community in seconds.
Today, 20 developers of the most popular games on the iPhone became PlayHaven Charter Partners and have made their communities available within their games. Charter Partners include Minigore, Geared, I Dig It, The Quest, Mouse House 2, SnowFerno, iSamurai, BobbleSurfer, ZombieSmash!, Transylvania, Genius Defense Force, Gang Street Wars, Hopple, Tipoli, Influence, Above and Cell War, to name just a few. Many of these titles have occupied the top spot on Apple's list of most popular games in the App Store and have collectively reached over 1 million iPhone users.
"Now we have a community where Geared fans can share tips and strategies on the web or straight from the game," said Bryan Mitchell, the developer behind Geared. "We are already seeing tremendous value in the new online features with nearly one-third of our players entering our community each day."
A recent survey from AdMob found that 46 percent of iPhone users choose applications based on word-of-mouth recommendations. Yet most iPhone game developers have no way to reach their fans directly to encourage word-of-mouth buzz or even to announce new titles. PlayHaven does what the iPhone App Store does not – create a connection between game developers and their fans. Developers can now rely on their passionate fans to be the rocket fuel that grows the popularity of their games.
