Cloudant Data Layer as a Service Scores Big for Big Win Sports Mobile Games

BOSTON, Aug. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Cloudant today announced that independent developer Hothead Games has expanded its use of the Cloudant Data Layer managed cloud database service to support the growth of its hugely popular series of Big Win Sports mobile games. Already proven to store and distribute game-state data for millions of head-to-head Big Win Soccer and Big Win Hockey matches around the world, last month Hothead Games launched Big Win Baseball, also powered by the Cloudant global data layer as a service. With Cloudant, Hothead moves the job of database operations and scalability to the cloud so the development studio can focus on coding its next big game. An infographic on the launch is available at https://cloudant.com/how-to-win-big-in-the-app-market/.

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Cloudant helped Hothead Games scale its application data literally overnight. When Big Win Soccer became a featured app in March 2012 and usage soared, Hothead Games moved their data onto the Cloudant cloud database service in a matter of days. Over the next 16 weeks, Hothead Games launched Big Win Hockey and Big Win Baseball, and the number of Big Win games played per day rose significantly. To help support the explosive popularity of the games, big data experts at Cloudant monitored the Hothead Games data layer performance and gradually scaled it from a 6-server Cloudant database cluster to a 60-server cluster running on a global network of SoftLayer data centers. Offloading database operations to Cloudant enabled Hothead Games to stay focused on developing new games.

"Our code makes hundreds of millions of database transactions a day. It's critical to our business that every single one of those works reliably and is super fast," said Joel DeYoung, director of technology at Hothead Games. "Leaving the database administration and performance tuning details in Cloudant's hands has freed up our team to focus on what matters most: making a great experience for our users. A good data layer is one that you barely notice is there, and working with the big data experts at Cloudant has made that a reality for all our Big Win Sports titles."

Mobile is the future of gaming. Consumers will spend $112 billion on video game-related purchases by 2015, according to a Gartner Research report, "Gaming Ecosystem, 2011." The report forecasts that mobile gaming will undergo the fastest rate of growth in this period, rising from "15 percent in 2010 to 20 percent in 2015." As tablet and smartphone applications generate more revenue through in-game purchases and advertising, the amount of data they generate will also increase to unprecedented levels.

"Anyone serious about producing a big-time mobile game has to be deeply invested in the business of large-scale data management if they plan to grow their app worldwide," said Cloudant CEO Derek Schoettle. "Big Win Sports has been a huge success for Hothead Games, and being able to handle their impressive growth of game data is a compelling example of the power of Cloudant."

About Hothead Games

Hothead Games is an award winning, independent games development studio founded in 2006. Focused on developing and publishing high quality games for mobile gamers, Hothead has developed games for Apple's App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore, Barnes and Nobles Nook App Store. Our games include Scarface, Sea Stars, Zombie Ace and the Big Win Sports series.

Official Website | Facebook | @HotheadGames

About Cloudant

Cloudant provides developers of large or fast-growing Web and mobile applications with the world's first globally distributed "data layer as a service" for loading, storing, analyzing, and distributing application data. The Cloudant Data Layer is a managed service that helps developers to eliminate the delays, costs, and distractions inherent in working with databases and their administrators, while providing unmatched scalability, availability, and performance. This capability accelerates time-to-market and time-to-innovation, because it frees developers from the mechanics of data management so they can focus exclusively on creating great applications. Cloudant is privately held and backed by top-tier investors including Avalon Ventures and Y Combinator. For more information, visit https://cloudant.com/.

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SOURCE Cloudant