Jam City, Inc. (formerly MindJolt and Social Gaming Network) is an American
video game developer
A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...
based in
Culver City, California
Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most d ...
. The company was founded in 2010 by
Chris DeWolfe
Chris DeWolfe (born ) is an American technology entrepreneur. He co-founded Myspace in 2003 and was its chief executive officer (CEO) until 2009. DeWolfe has been the CEO of Jam City (company), Jam City, a video game developer, since he co-foun ...
,
Colin Digiaro,
Aber Whitcomb
Aber Whitcomb (born 1977) is the CTO and Co-Founder of Jam City, Inc (formerly SGN Games). As CTO of Jam City Inc, a multi-platform game developer and distributor, Aber Whitcomb oversees the cross-platform technology strategy and plays a key rol ...
, and Josh Yguado. Jam City has nine studios located in the United States, Canada, South America, and Europe. As of 2021, it employs 825 people.
Netmarble
Netmarble Corp. (Hangul, Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean mobile game developer. It is South Korea's largest mobile-gaming company which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk.
Overview
Netmarble developed ''Lineage 2 Revolution ...
is the largest shareholder in Jam City. As of 2021, Jam City's games have 31 million
monthly active users
Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...
and 1.3
billion
Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions:
*1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English.
* 1,000,000,000,000, i.e ...
total downloads.
History
Jam City was founded by the
Myspace co-founders
Chris DeWolfe
Chris DeWolfe (born ) is an American technology entrepreneur. He co-founded Myspace in 2003 and was its chief executive officer (CEO) until 2009. DeWolfe has been the CEO of Jam City (company), Jam City, a video game developer, since he co-foun ...
,
Colin Digiaro and
Aber Whitcomb
Aber Whitcomb (born 1977) is the CTO and Co-Founder of Jam City, Inc (formerly SGN Games). As CTO of Jam City Inc, a multi-platform game developer and distributor, Aber Whitcomb oversees the cross-platform technology strategy and plays a key rol ...
, and former
20th Century Fox
20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
executive Josh Yguado.
The company launched in 2010 when the co-founders raised from
Austin Ventures
Austin Ventures (AV) is a private equity firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments in business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services companies nationally with a focus o ...
for their business, then called Platform G.
Platform G acquired MindJolt, a
social gaming platform founded by Richard Fields, in March 2010 and took its name.
Fields remained with the company to lead strategy.
The new MindJolt acquired Social Gaming Network (or SGN) and Hallpass Media in April 2011, which added
mobile game
A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...
s to the company's portfolio.
MindJolt renamed as SGN in March 2012.
In June 2013, SGN acquired Mob Science, a developer of social games known for ''Legends: Rise of a Hero''. The company launched the game ''Panda Pop'' in 2013, which would later become one of the highest-grossing mobile games. The match-3
puzzle game
A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...
''Cookie Jam'' launched in 2014. ''Cookie Jam'' was named
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
's game of the year with more than 100 million downloads and 5 million active players at the time.
''Cookie Jam'' was also among the 20 highest-grossing mobile games for
Google Play
Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...
and the
App Store
An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the co ...
.
In the wake of ''Cookie Jam''s success, the South Korean mobile game company
Netmarble
Netmarble Corp. (Hangul, Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean mobile game developer. It is South Korea's largest mobile-gaming company which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk.
Overview
Netmarble developed ''Lineage 2 Revolution ...
invested in SGN in July 2015, becoming SGN's largest shareholder; this was one of the largest investments in mobile gaming since 2013. By the time of Netmarble's investment, SGN games had been downloaded 500 million times. Following Netmarble's investment, SGN bought the developers Fat Rascal Games and Kiwi Inc. in late 2015, followed by
TinyCo
TinyCo is a mobile video game studio and the creator of '' Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff'', '' Futurama Worlds of Tomorrow'', '' Marvel Avengers Academy'', ''Guess!'', ''Spellstorm'', ''Tiny Castle'', ''Tiny Monsters'', ''Tiny Village'', and '' ...
in July 2016. The latter acquisition raised SGN's staff count from 125 to 400. Mobile entertainment games that TinyCo had created include ''Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff'' and ''Marvel Avengers Academy''. SGN rebranded as Jam City in September 2016,
the same year ''Genies & Gems'', a match-3 puzzle game, was launched.
On April 25, 2018, Jam City released ''
Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery'', a mobile game based on
J. K. Rowling
Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and Philanthropy, philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to ...
's
Wizarding World
The Wizarding World (previously known as J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World) is a fantasy media franchise and shared fictional universe centred on the ''Harry Potter'' novel series by J. K. Rowling. A series of films have been in production since ...
franchise. Within its first day, the game was ranked first on the App Store's free-to-play category and reached tenth place on the list of top-grossing games across categories. It was the fastest of Jam City's games to reach $100 million in revenue, generating in its first year. By October 2019, it had been downloaded 54.6 million times. The game was nominated for Best Breakthrough Game during the 2019 Google Play Awards.
Jam City bought the intellectual property, management, and development team of ''Bingo Pop'' from
Uken Games
Uken Games is an independent game studio based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The company was founded in 2009 by Chris Ye and Mark Lampert to build cross platform social and mobile games for iOS and Android (operating system), Android. In 2011, th ...
in November 2018, expanding geographically into
Toronto, Canada
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anchor ...
.
Also in 2018, Jam City and
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
reached a multi-year deal for Jam City to develop licensed games based on stories and characters from Disney and
Pixar
Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californi ...
.
As part of that deal, Jam City took over the game ''Disney Emoji Blitz''.
Jam City's first new game under its deal with Disney was ''Frozen Adventures'' based on the ''
Frozen'' and ''
Frozen 2
''Frozen 2'' (stylized as ''Frozen II'') is a 2019 American computer-animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The 58th animated film produced by the st ...
'' films, which launched the next year.
Jam City announced in January 2019 that it raised in funding from
JPMorgan Chase Bank
JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fina ...
,
Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and others to support Jam City's acquisitions and global growth initiatives. Jam City acquired
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
-based studio 231 Play in April. DeWolfe told ''
GamesBeat
''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos.
History
The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...
'' that the acquisition of studios in Toronto and Berlin allowed Jam City to expand into more game genres, such as
solitaire
Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...
,
mahjong
Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-play ...
, and
bingo
Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Gaming
* Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers
** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland
** Bi ...
. According to analytics provider Sensor Tower, solitaire, mahjong, and bingo games ranked among Jam City's top games as of February 2021. By mid-2020, Jam City's valuation was estimated at greater than .
On May 20, 2021, Jam City announced it would become a
public company
A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange (l ...
through a merger with DPCM Capital Inc., a
special-purpose acquisition company
A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional i ...
. The merger valued Jam City at , including debt.
The merger was expected to close later in 2021.
Through the deal, Jam City was also acquire video game developer
Ludia
Ludia is a video game developer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that creates and distributes cross-platform digital games with mass consumer appeal. Ludia produces original and branded properties based on game shows, television series, movies, ...
, the maker of games based on the ''
Jurassic World
''Jurassic World'' is a 2015 American science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Derek Connolly from a story by Jaffa and Silver. It is the first installment in the ...
'' franchise, for in September. In August 2022, Jam City
laid off
A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...
150–200 people (17% of its headcount), primarily affecting Ludia.
Selected games
Most of the games Jam City produces are
free-to-play
Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...
and use
microtransaction
Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransact ...
s for players to obtain in-game items or abilities that speed up progression. Jam City's stated business goals include creating high-quality games that generate revenue for years. Jam City's games include both original and licensed
intellectual property
Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, cop ...
.
In 2017, Jam City had 50 million
monthly active users
Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...
and it had seven games that have ranked in the 100 highest-grossing charts in the
Apple App Store
The App Store is an app store platform, developed and maintained by Apple Inc., for mobile apps on its iOS and iPadOS operating systems. The store allows users to browse and download approved apps developed within Apple's iOS Software Devel ...
. The company had 31 million monthly active users and 1.3 billion total game downloads in 2021.
Products and collaborations
Jam City released a monetization tool, AdJolt, in November 2010. It was made available to third-party developers, who would share revenue generated through AdJolt with MindJolt. In December 2012, Jam City launched MasterKey, which enabled the company to develop
cross-platform
In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software r ...
games without creating separate versions for each platform. MasterKey was described as being technology that "essentially works like a translator or convertor".
In December 2014, SGN and Chinese internet technology company
NetEase
NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centered on content, community, communications, and commerce. The company was founded in 1997 by Ding Lei. NetEase develops and operates online PC and mobile game ...
announced a partnership that enabled ''Cookie Jam'' to be distributed in China beginning in early 2015.
References
External links
* {{Official website, https://www.jamcity.com/
2010 establishments in California
Companies based in Culver City, California
Mobile game companies
American companies established in 2010
Video game companies established in 2010
Video game companies of the United States
Video game development companies