WildTangent
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Software, distribution, monetization, consumer services, mobile game developer |
| Founded | Washington (1998) |
| Founder | Alex St. John, Jeaneane Falkler, Jeremy Kenyon |
| Headquarters | 18578 NE 67th Court, Bldg. 5, Redmond, WA 98052 |
| Products |
Video games See the list |
| Website | WildTangent.com |
WildTangent is a Redmond, Washington based[1] game network, privately held in the United States that powers game services for several PC manufacturers including Dell and HP. Collectively, WildTangent’s owned and operated service reaches over 20 million monthly gamers in the United States and Europe with a catalog of more than 1000 games from nearly 100 developers.
The company launched an Android games service at the end of 2011 with T-Mobile. The company also manages the advertising sales for a group of gaming properties including Mochi Media, Sony Online Entertainment's Free Realms, PopCap, PlayFirst, as well as Artix’s AdventureQuest, DragonFable, Namco, and MechQuest properties.
The company owns a patent portfolio covering in-game advertising and app delivery technologies.
WildTangent makes money through a combination of online sales, subscription, advertising and micro-transactions using a proprietary micro-currency called WildCoins.
WildCoins
WildCoins are a micro-currency launched by WildTangent in the fall of 2006 to give gamers a way to pay for gameplay other than full retail purchase. WildCoins work like quarters used at a traditional arcade. Gamers can purchase WildCoins and use them to play any games on the network. Each time the gamer inserts the required number of coins, he or she can play the game for up to 24 hours, or until the user voluntarily exits the game, without having to use more WildCoins.[2]
Advertisers can also purchase WildCoins and sponsor free game sessions. If the gamer agrees to see a short video advertisement while the game is loading, the advertiser will insert WildCoins making the game free to the player.
The WildCoins model allows customers to rent individual game titles, some of which can only be rented through the WildTangent catalog of nearly 1,000 games. Titles that are available for rent exclusively through the WildTangent console include Torchlight,[3] Defense Grid, Raven Squad, World of Goo, Plants vs. Zombies, and Bejeweled.
WildTangent also has a Weekly WildCoin Giveaway every Wednesday. Each link can be used once and gives a single WildCoin.
WildClub
In November 2008, the company launched a subscription program called WildClub which offers customers access to the company’s patented digital currency, called WildCoins. WildClub offers three tiers of membership: 2-month, 6-month and 12-month which vary in price from $9.99-$6.99. WildClub customers receive 50 WildCoins each month of their membership.
On October 24, 2009 WildTangent crossed the one million daily download threshold, less than one year after the launch of its popular WildClub program.[4]
Games
WildTangent's catalog includes over 1,500 games from 3rd-party developers.
Approximately 30 of the games in the WildTangent catalog were produced by the company's own WildTangent Game Studios. The rest of the games on the WildTangent game network are from other game developers and publishers. this includes game like Mall World which the company has represented to integrate major brands like Levis.[5]
Originally, WildTangent produced advergames for various companies, including Nike, Coke, and Ford. The company no longer develops advergames. WildTangent used to be a publisher of Sandlot Games. But now, it's only the distributor due to the rebrand of Sandlot Games.
Criticism
Users have complained that the company's products have an adverse effect on their PC's performance or are intrusive to the user's experience. PC Magazine wrote in 2004 that although the program was "not very" evil, some privacy complaints were justified as the program's user manual states that it may collect name, address, phone number, e-mail, and other contact information and could distribute the collected information with the user's consent. Concerns were also raised about the software's self-updating feature.[6] In 2003, antispyware program Spybot classified Wild Tangent's original Web Driver as a potentially unwanted program (PUP).[7][8] WildTangent no longer distributes or develops WebDriver.
In 2011, WildTangent challenged a patent infringement ruling against itself and Hulu by Ultramercial, LLC, who contended that the two companies had violated its 2001 patent US 7346545, "Method and system for payment of intellectual property royalties by interposed sponsor on behalf of consumer over a telecommunications network", alleging that the patent was too abstract. The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit upheld Ultramercial's patent, stating that it "does not simply claim the age-old idea that advertising can serve as currency. Instead [it] discloses a practical application of this idea." The court also asserted that the technical elements required to implement the system described were intricate enough to not be abstract. On June 21, 2013, after being ordered by the Supreme Court to re-examine the case, the Federal Circuit upheld its decision and ruled that Ultramercial's patents were valid.[9][10][11] However, the 2014 Supreme Court ruling in Alice Corp. v. CLS Bank Int'l narrowed patent eligibility for software, and the Supreme Court subsequently sent Ultramercial's case back to the Federal Circuit. In November 2014, the Federal Circuit invalidated Ultramercial's patent in light of the ruling in Alice, undoing two of its own previous rulings and freeing WildTangent from liability.[12]
See also
References
- ↑ "WildTangent Sees Growing Advertising Opportunities in Social Gaming - Tricia Duryee - Commerce - AllThingsD". Emoney.allthingsd.com. 2011-02-09. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
- ↑ "WildCoins | Play Games with WildCoins | WildTangent Games". Wildgames.com. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
- ↑ "WildTangent Offers Torchlight RPG for Purchase and Rent; Unique Digital Currency Allow Gamers to 'Rent' Game Play in Addition to Game Purchase". Prweb.com. 2009-10-27. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
- ↑ "WildTangent's Strong Growth Continues as Company Exceeds One Million Daily Game Downloads". Prweb.com. 2009-11-02. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
- ↑ "WildTangent Collaborates with the Levi's® Brand to Bring Levi's® Curve ID Product Line to Popular Facebook Game, Mall World". SFGate. 2011-04-08. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
- ↑ Machrone, Bill (2004-06-22). "Spyware or Slyware?". PCMag.com. Retrieved 2012-12-27.
- ↑ Archived April 27, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ Archived June 5, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
- ↑ "Supreme Court orders do-over on key software patent ruling". Ars Technica. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ↑ "One of the worst patents ever just got upheld in court". The Washington Post. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ↑ Fisher, Daniel. "Take That, SCOTUS: Appeals Court Reinstates Patent On Video-Ad Technology". Forbes. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
- ↑ Crouch, Dennis. "Federal Circuit: Novelty in Implementation of an Abstract Idea Insufficient to Overcome Alice". Patently-O. Retrieved 5 August 2015.