Kongregate
Type of site
Online gaming website and/or social network
OwnerGameStop (2010–2017)
Modern Times Group (2017–)
RevenueAdvertising
In-game currency ("Kreds")
Corporate sponsorship
Premium memberships (Kong+)
URLKongregate.com
CommercialYes
RegistrationFree, not required (however, some features are disabled); Paid membership optional
LaunchedOctober 10, 2006[1]

Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 124,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchased by GameStop Corporation in 2010[2] before being acquired by Modern Times Group MT AB in 2017.

The website's portfolio of games spans a wide range of genres. Kongregate is the home for several idle/clicker games, including Adventure Capitalist, Crusaders of the Lost Idols, and Anti-Idle: The Game.

On the web portal, users could upload Adobe Flash, HTML5/JavaScript, Shockwave, Java, and Unity games with integrated high scores and achievement badges.[1][3][4] The portal was closed to new user submissions in 2020, though previously submitted games remain.

History

Kongregate was released on October 10, 2006, by siblings Emily and Jim Greer into an alpha testing phase, which lasted until December 2006.[5] During this time, game developers and players tested the site's interface and functionality. The site formally entered the beta testing phase on March 22, 2007.[6][7] In December of the same year, the site was formally opened to the public.[3] As of July 2008, Kongregate had raised around $9 million in capital from investments by Reid Hoffman, Jeff Clavier, Jeff Bezos, and Greylock Partners.[8]

On July 23, 2010, GameStop announced an agreement to acquire Kongregate.[2]

In 2014, the site introduced digital creatures called Kongpanions, which act as a site-wide achievement system and metagame. These creatures often take the form of animals or anthropomophized objects. The Kongpanions that players collect can be used in some games on the site.[9]

Games publishing

In early 2013, Kongregate announced a $10 million fund devoted to mobile gaming,[10] and as part of this new program, the former Zynga executive Pany Haritatos was hired to oversee it.[11] The money was used to financially support free-to-play mobile game developers by helping them test and market their games.[12] Some of the developers benefited by this fund included Synapse Games, RedPoint Labs, and Making Fun.[12]

Kongregate announced plans in October 2016 to help developers bring their games to the Steam distribution platform with an updated software development kit to make it easy to port games between Kongregate's web and mobile platforms as well as the Steam platforms (Windows, macOS, and Linux). It also simplified for players data sharing between these platforms. This enabled games to take advantage of microtransactions through the Steam store for titles otherwise normally free-to-play.[13]

In 2016, Kongregate received Apple Editors' Choice for BattleHand and The Trail,[14] and the company received Google Play Editors' Choice for Animation Throwdown and AdVenture Capitalist. BattleHand and The Trail also were voted as Best of 2016 by Apple, and Animation Throwdown and The Trail were voted Best of 2016 by Google Play.

On June 20, 2017, Kongregate announced it had closed a deal to be acquired by Swedish entertainment company Modern Times Group[15] for $55 million. This followed MTG's recent purchase of 51% of Hamburg-based online game developer InnoGames in 2016 and 2017. Planned as part of the deal was a change in focus from hosting third-party games to driving game development as well. "[...]we'll be deepening our investment in several areas, from marketing/marketing tech to platform engineering. We're also going to be investing in first-party development and potential acquisitions of our own within the games space," said CEO Emily Greer.[16]

On October 5, 2017, Kongregate acquired Chicago-based Synapse Games, the developer of Animation Throwdown.[17]

On May 2, 2019, Kongregate announced that co-founder and CEO Emily Greer was leaving the company. She was replaced by COO Pany Haritatos as interim CEO.[18]

In December 2019, Kongregate acquired Surviv.io, a free-to-play online game.[19][20]

On July 1, 2020, Kongregate announced the discontinuation of submissions as it prepared for the end-of-life for Adobe Flash Player by December 31, 2020, during which time the software required to run most of its games would be disabled in some browsers. Other features of the site such as the forums were also halted at the time as the Kongregate team worked on transitioning their internal titles to HTML5.[21]

Kartridge

In November 2018 Kongregate opened Kartridge, a digital storefront focusing on independent games.[22] The storefront is available via browser or desktop app and features both premium paid games and free browser-based titles.[23] Unlike other storefronts such as Steam, Kartridge is a heavily curated store. Kongregate hopes this curation will help spotlight quality games and address discoverability issues indie games commonly face.[24] Another incentive offered to developers by the store is an increased revenue share for all games until they reach $10,000 in sales,[25] with games that are exclusive to it having a higher threshold of $40,000.[26]

Kongregate.io

In July 2021 Kongregate unveiled Kongregate.io, a new web gaming portal featuring games that use non-fungible tokens.[27]

Immutable X

In May 2022 Kongregate announced a team-up with blockchain game tech company Immutable X with a $40 million grant fund for developers who make blockchain games for Kongregate.[28]

Mobile apps

Kongregate has released 25 games for mobile devices that are available on the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store. Their most downloaded apps include AdVenture Capitalist, Pocket Politics, and Star Trek Trexels.

Kongregate mobile games released to the Google Play Store and Apple App Store
AdVenture Capitalist
AdVenture Communist
Realm Grinder
Pocket Politics
Pocket Politics 2
Where's My Water 2
Super Fancypants Adventure
Crossword Safari Word Hunt
Cosmo Quest
Hero's of Ring: Dragon War
Idle Payday: Fast Money
Office Space: Idle Profits
Lionheart Tactics
Endless Boss Fight
Tyrant: Unleashed
Dragon Idle Adventure
BattleHand
Spellstone
Little Alchemist
Royal Idle: Medieval Quest
Maleficent: Free Fall
Inside Out: Thought Bubbles
The Trail
The PowerPuff Girls: Monkey Mania
Idle Frontier: Tap Town Tycoon
Surviv.io (Sunset on March 2, 2023)
Zen Idle
Bit Heroes
Animation Throwdown: The Collectible Card Game
Burrito Bison: Launcha Libre
Run
ro
TMNT: Mutant Madness

References

  1. 1 2 "Kongregate: a Next Generation Web Games Marketplace". techcrunch.com. 2006-10-19. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  2. 1 2 GameStop (2010-07-27). "GameStop Announces Agreement to Acquire Kongregate Inc". BusinessWire. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  3. 1 2 Baertlein, Lisa (2007-03-22). "New site aims to be the YouTube of gaming". Reuters Life!. Thomson Reuters. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  4. ↑ Wilson, Matt (2006-12-20). "Kongregate: Your Gatorade For Flash Games". Solution Watch. Archived from the original on 2017-10-15. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  5. ↑ Greer, Jim (2006-09-01). "Gamers asking for Kongregate!". Jim on Web Games. Archived from the original on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  6. ↑ Nicole, Kristen (2007-03-22). "Kongregate Announces Funding, Launches". Mashable Social Networking News. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  7. ↑ Marshall, Matt (2007-03-21). "Kongregate, the online social game hub". Venture Beat. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  8. ↑ Schonfeld, Erick (2008-04-30). "Kongregate Gets $3 Million From Bezos: Growing Fast and About To Unleash Its Games on Facebook". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  9. ↑ "Other Work". Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  10. ↑ Weber, Rachel (4 February 2013). "Kongregate launches $10m fund for mobile developers". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  11. ↑ Costello, Steve (2013-02-14). "Kongregate launches $10M mobile games fund". Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  12. 1 2 Weber, Rachel (2 July 2013). "Kongregate names $10m mobile fund developers". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  13. ↑ Brightman, James (2016-10-28). "Kongregate expands to Steam, "exploring opportunities" in premium". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  14. ↑ Calimlim, Aldrin (2016-12-07). "Here are Apple's Best Apps and Games of 2016". AppAdvice. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  15. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (2017-06-20). "MTG buys GameStop's mobile game publisher Kongregate for $55 million". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  16. ↑ Suckley, Matt (2017-06-21). ""More growth, more platforms, broader presence": Kongregate on its post-acquisition strategy". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  17. ↑ Cowley, Ric (2017-10-05). "Kongregate acquires Animation Throwdown and Spellstone developer Synpase Games". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 2018-10-15.
  18. ↑ Minotti, Mike (2019-05-02). "Kongregate CEO and cofounder Emily Greer is leaving the company". venturebeat.com. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  19. ↑ Kerr, Chris (5 December 2019). "Kongregate acquires mobile and browser battle royale shooter Surviv.io". www.gamasutra.com. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  20. ↑ "Kongregate Acquires Popular Battle Royale Game 'Surviv.io'". Kongregate Developers. 2019-12-05. Retrieved 2020-01-14.
  21. ↑ Carpenter, Nicole (July 2, 2020). "Kongregate is shifting away from Flash gaming". Polygon. Retrieved July 2, 2020.
  22. ↑ Tarason, Dominic (November 2018). "Kongregate's new games store Kartridge is open for business". Rock, Paper, Shotgun.
  23. ↑ Chalk, Andy (November 2018). "Kongregate's digital storefront Kartridge is now open for everyone". PC Gamer.
  24. ↑ Conditt, Jessica. "Kartridge is a curated game store, now with more Indie Megabooth". Engadget.
  25. ↑ Chan, Stephanie (24 April 2018). "Kongregate announces revenue share details for its PC gaming platform Kartridge". VentureBeat. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  26. ↑ Handrahan, Matthew (25 April 2018). "Kartridge offers developers 100% of revenue up to $10,000". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  27. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (29 July 2021). "Kongregate.io will hit open beta later this year with NFT games".
  28. ↑ Takahashi, Dean (25 May 2022). "Kongregate and Immutable X launch $40M blockchain game dev fund".
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