RealNetworks’ Games Division Going Solo

Wagner James Au, Thursday, May 8, 2008 at 5:00 PM PT Comments (1)

The casual games space keeps getting more interesting. Digital media company RealNetworks said today that revenue from its games division rose 33 percent in the first quarter, to $31.8 million; the company also announced it will spin off its games properties, which primarily consists of cellphone titles and its RealArcade casual game site, into a separate company (see CEO Rob Glaser’s appearance on the GigaOM Show last summer). “[T]he spin off will create a pure-play casual games business with increased transparency,” CFO Michael Eggers told MarketWatch, “[and that will] result in lower complexity in understanding and tracking RealNetworks’ performance.”

If the Alexa rankings are any indication, the new company will have a long way to go before they catch up with the likes of Electronic Arts’ (ERTS) Pogo.com. The real question, however, is how does this relate to RealNetworks’ stated intent to buy Scrabulous?

1 comment so far

May 9th, 2008
5:22 AM PT
Andreas said:

I hope they go ahead with the IPO. It would be a very interesting company to keep track of. And of course, a public company would give us all some valuable information about the casual and mobile games market.

Leave a Comment

Get the comments RSS feed, instant notification of new comments

Most Comments

Web 2.0, Please Meet Your Host, the Internet
Allan Leinwand, May 7, 62 comments
Global Telcos Plotting a Skype Rival?
Om Malik, May 6, 36 comments
U.S. WiMAX Saved by $3.2 Billion Infusion
Om Malik, May 6, 27 comments
The 5 Stages of a Consumer Web Startup
Stacey Higginbotham, May 9, 19 comments
Yahoo is Friendless On Wall Street
Om Malik, May 5, 16 comments

Highest Rated

Web 2.0, Please Meet Your Host, the Internet
Allan Leinwand, May 7, 100%
MySpace Builds a Bigger Walled Garden
Stacey Higginbotham, May 8, 64%
Cash-flush Kongregate Adds Facebook Widget
Wagner James Au, May 6, 64%
Think Niche to Slay eBay
Stacey Higginbotham, May 6, 67%
GSP East ticket discount
Edit Staff, May 9, 75%
Close
E-mail It