PlayFab Expands European Presence to Serve Game Developers in the Region

SEATTLE, July 23, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- PlayFab, the industry's most complete backend service to build, launch, and grow live games, today announced it is expanding its European presence with the opening of an office in Berlin and the addition of Europe-based developer support, under the company's GM of Europe, Mark Val. With 30 percent of the company's active clients based in Europe, and more than 1,000 local game developers registered for its services, PlayFab is bolstering its ability to support the region's momentum and growing demand for backend game operations technologies. Along with the new office, the company is releasing additional features and productivity enhancements that will be available to developers in Europe and around the world.

PlayFab has seen rapid adoption among game developers worldwide since the company launched its services last year. An increasing number of studios are looking to create live games and emphasize post-launch operations and success, but have been deterred by the costs and hassles of developing the necessary technologies in-house. PlayFab enables developers to overcome the traditional barriers to entry for launching and maintaining live games.  Recent titles released by European developers that use the PlayFab platform include: VR Karts (PC/Oculus Rift) and VR Karts Sprint (Gear VR), virtual reality games from UK-based Viewpoint Games Ltd; Boomie Blast Island (iOS), a 3D arcade adventure game from Germany-based TreasureHunt; and Skara: The Blade Remains (PC), the first versus fighting game of its kind, developed by Spain-based 8-Bit Games.

"Live games are truly the future of the games industry, and developers who ignore this trend will eventually fall short," said Neil Campbell, technical director of Viewpoint Games. "Developing a backend that can support live game operations and continual success well beyond initial launch is extremely difficult and costly, and takes away from the resources a studio can allocate to creating a game. PlayFab has delivered tremendous value to our efforts and made it much easier for us to create games that are both artistic and geared for business success over the long term."

"Game development has changed, and in Europe in particular we're seeing the rise of thousands of small and medium-size studios — and even the big studios are now focusing on smaller games," Val said. "The era of everyone doing everything themselves is over. We've seen a huge demand for our services across Europe, and with our new Berlin office on the Kurfürstendamm we'll be able to support our customers better than ever."

"I recently spoke at International Games Week in Berlin and was blown away by all of the creativity taking place there," said James Gwertzman, co-founder and CEO of PlayFab. "European developers comprise a significant portion of our customer base, and the interest in our platform has reached a point that requires more local support. Establishing a formal presence in Europe with a dedicated team will allow us to better serve the region and help drive the innovation that European developers are so well known for."

In addition to a dedicated presence in Europe, PlayFab has released additional features to help developers build, launch, and grow their games. New APIs support content management and virtual item trading, while productivity and usability enhancements to the Game Manager include improved two-factor authentication and a streamlined interface. Developers can also now take advantage of PayPal and Facebook payments in addition to Apple, Google, and Amazon, and authenticate players through Kongregate as well as Apple, Google, Facebook, Steam, and Amazon.

PlayFab has more than 7,000 developers and 10 million players registered on its platform. In June, the company launched PlayFab Free Tier, granting developers unlimited free access to some of the most popular elements of its backend game operations platform.  

About PlayFab, Inc.
Based in Seattle, WA, PlayFab offers the most complete set of backend services to build, launch, and grow live games, including player accounts, virtual goods, analytics, leaderboards, multiplayer, in-game messaging, content management, and more. PlayFab's tools are cross-platform and designed to be used by mobile, PC, and console developers. For more information, visit playfab.com. 

SOURCE PlayFab

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https://www.playfab.com