GameHouse is a casual game

developer Developer may refer to: Computers *Software developer, a person or organization who develop programs/applications *Video game developer, a person or business involved in video game development, the process of designing and creating games *Web deve ...

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, digital video game distributor, and

portal Portal often refers to: * Portal (architecture), an opening in a wall of a building, gate or fortification, or the extremities (ends) of a tunnel Portal may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * ''Portal'' (series), two video games ...

, based in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered on ...

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. It is a division of

RealNetworks RealNetworks, Inc. is a provider of artificial intelligence and computer vision based products. RealNetworks was a pioneer in Internet streaming software and services. They are based in Seattle, Washington, United States. The company also p ...

. GameHouse distributes casual games for PC and Mac computers, as well as for mobile devices such as phones and tablets (on both

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

(

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) and

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( Google Play and the Amazon Appstore)). GameHouse offers 2,300+ online and downloadable games, consisting of both in-house produced titles (such as the Delicious series) and third party games.

History

GameHouse was founded by Ben Exworthy and Garr Godfrey in 1998. The first downloadable game developed by the company was ''

Collapse! ''Collapse!'' is a series of tile-matching puzzle video games by GameHouse, a software company in Seattle, Washington. In 2007, ''Super Collapse! 3'' became the first game to win the Game of the Year at the inaugural Zeebys. The series has been ...

'', a game similar to ''

SameGame is a tile-matching puzzle originally released under the name ''Chain Shot!'' in 1985 by Kuniaki Moribe (Morisuke). It has since been ported to numerous computer platforms, handheld devices, and even TiVo, with new versions as of 2016. History ...

''. In 2003, company revenues topped $10 million ($5.5 million net). In 2004, GameHouse was acquired by

for $14.6 million cash and about 3.3 million RNWK shares, then estimated at $21 million. After the acquisition, the GameHouse studio continued operations as a developer, while its games were distributed via RealNetworks, and the GameHouse game portal continued to operate alongside the RealArcade gaming service. On November 3, 2009, RealArcade had announced they are merging with GameHouse to create a large distribution platform. Such plans include migrating the accounts of users from RealArcade, offering discounts and special offers to GamePass members and new social community opportunities. The merger was completed on November 13. As a result, all customers visiting the RealArcade website are redirected to Gamehouse.com. By 2010, RealArcade Mobile was rebranded as GameHouse.

Locations

GameHouse's main offices are in Eindhoven, the Netherlands. The company also has studios in Barcelona and Alicante (Spain). GameHouse has been working on developing their own original story games such as the Delicious series and Zylom. In collaboration with Blue Giraffe, it launched Delicious: Emily’s Christmas Carol in December 2016. The company continues to release multiple story-driven time management games per year on mobile while maintaining Zylom and GameHouse websites on which they publish games by other developers too. Zylom is part of the Gamehouse Studios Europe which operate the main GameHouse properties globally.

RealArcade

RealArcade (Formerly RealOne Arcade) was a gaming service run by

that sold casual-style computer games to individual users. Its purpose was to let users download demo versions of games, and optionally buy the full versions.

Sales model

RealArcade distributes games on a time-limited demo basis. Each game downloaded has a trial time of 60 minutes unless differently specified by each publisher. Once the trial time expires, users are required either to uninstall the game from their computer or to purchase the full version of the game. Users can also subscribe to a RealNetworks service called GamePass. For a monthly fee, it offers a free ownership of a single game of their choice per month at no additional fees and $5.00 off each game purchase.

References

External links

*
RealArcade Games Preservation Project archive
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gamehouse 1998 establishments in Washington (state) 2004 mergers and acquisitions Browser-based game websites Companies based in Seattle Mobile game companies Online-only retailers of video games RealNetworks Video game companies established in 1998 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies