Mousebreaker is a UK based

casual games A casual game is a video game targeted at a mass market audience, as opposed to a Hardcore gamer, hardcore game, which is targeted at Gamer#Dedication spectrum, hobbyist gamers. Casual games may exhibit any type of gameplay and genre. They genera ...

website founded in 2001 by Richard Pendry and Alick Stott. One of the earliest

browser game A browser game or a "flash game" is a video game that is played via the internet using a web browser. They are mostly free-to-play and can be single-player or multiplayer. Some browser games are also available as mobile apps, PC games, or on c ...

portals, the site earned a reputation in terms of publishing

sports Sport pertains to any form of competitive physical activity or game that aims to use, maintain, or improve physical ability and skills while providing enjoyment to participants and, in some cases, entertainment to spectators. Sports can, th ...

and, in particular,

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

games. In 2008, the website was purchased by UK publisher

IPC Media TI Media (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its tit ...

for a rumoured seven figure sum. The site was amongst the biggest UK flash games websites, with over 4,500,000 unique users per month. In 2016, Mousebreaker was sold to

Spil Games Spil Games is a Dutch video game developer based in Hilversum. The company publishes free-to-play games for Android and iOS devices, as well as for the Facebook Platform. History Peter Driessen and Bennie Eeftink founded Spill Group in 2001. ...

Early games

Pendry and Stott first worked together on flash games as a hobby in 2000. Their first projects were a simple penalty shoot out game, and a pool game that would be the basis of the Blast Billiards franchise. Upon licensing copies of both games, the pair realised the potential of their hobby, but it wasn’t until 2003 that Mousebreaker.com was popular enough to be the only source of income for them and they began to work on the website full-time.

Purchase by IPC Media

In June 2008, Mousebreaker was purchased by

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( traded as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City, United States. It was originally established in 1972 by ...

owned

for a rumoured seven figure sum. The move saw Mousebreaker become part of IPC’s Ignite division, aimed predominantly at the 18-24 male demographic, and home to publications such as Nuts, Loaded and

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming, and culture website and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a 'rock inkie', the NME would become a magazine that ended up as a f ...

Style of games

Mousebreaker is best known for its sports and topical games, with titles such as Aporkalypse Now, Spank the Banker, Fat Cat Cashback and 'Bad Adebayor', getting attention from mainstream news outlets. Their sports section remains their most popular area however, and the site’s sheer number of football games has ensured the two are widely associated. Mousebreaker’s own list of requirements for third party flash developers states that their games are based on the ‘easy to play, difficult to master’ model, with short load-speeds and “a cheeky sense of humour” also required.

Best-known titles

Many of Mousebreaker’s early popular titles gained enough of a following to earn their own websites. Blast Billiards, Flash Cricket, and Camper Strike all proved popular enough to get a unique domain, with Play A Pal and Play For Your Club also registered b
Mousebreaker
for use with their popular football volleys games. Among their other titles, the Sports Heads series is one of their most played titles. In 2009, Pendry noted that Jumpers for Goalposts – a football lifestyle sim – had gained a loyal and dedicated following. sto Jumpers for Goalposts were released in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2013. Darts Party along with Top Spinner Cricket proved popular with gamers as well. Finally, the ambitious Rock Band Sim – which attempted to combine

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gameplay with the management sim genre – got some positive write-ups on casual game sites. From October 2010, Mousebreaker has a new gaming partner for the cash games section, the 888games.com website.

Mobile gaming

In November 2009, it was announced that Mousebreaker had entered into a partnership with CobraMobile to bring some of its titles to the iPhone and

iPod Touch The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...

through 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 ...

.Cobra bringing Mousebreaker Flash games to iPhone
/ref> The first game, Blast Billiards Touch, was approved by

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

in December 2009. A lite version offering a few levels was released in February 2010. One of their most popular games, Pinch Hitter, has become one of the most visited games of 2010.

References

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External links

MousebreakerGgkidsMousebreaker Corporate SiteiPhone reparatieIPC Media
Browser-based game websites Gaming websites Internet properties established in 2001 Video game companies of the United Kingdom Defunct companies based in London Casual games