Toby Rowland, founder of casual games site King.com, is returning to the start-up fold by launching educational maths games site Mangahigh.com, designed for schoolchildren aged 11 to 16.
A big departure from the fun and gambling-based King.com, Rowland’s new site claims to be compliant with the UK National Curriculum (specifically key stages 3 and 4) and is aimed at school students. The venture even has a heavy-hitting academic on board in the shape of Oxford maths professor Marcus du Sautoy.
The site launches with five games — Save Our Dumb Planet and Ice Ice. Maybe both sound uneducational enough to appeal to kids — and all are free to play. There’s a clear public benefit to turning kids on to maths through gaming, but less clear is where the ROI comes from.
This is a business venture. Rowland is the CEO of the site’s private parent company Blue Duck Education, but the site currently gives no clues as to how it will promote and monetise learning — though there must be a clear opportunity for the site to offer premium services to education authorities and schools if teenagers signal their approval. Rowland stepped down as King.com CEO in October 2008.

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