International browser game leader Bigpoint and LSE listed Mail.Ru Group have announced that they will soon begin offering some of each other’s games on their respective portals.
Mail.ru users will be able to find renowned Bigpoint games as Farmerama, DarkOrbit, Seafight or Battlestar Galactica Online and Bigpoint users will be able to access Russian award winning MMORPGs such as Legend: Legacy of the Dragons, Juggernaut, Empire Craft, and GodsWar Online via Bigpoint.com.
Not only will Bigpoint games be added to the Mail.ru gaming portal, they’ll also be integrated into Mail.Ru Group social networks Odnoklassniki and Moi Mir, which are among the most popular social networking sites on the Russian language Internet.
“By collaborating with each other, both platforms hope to gain access to new target groups,” says the joint press release. “It is the perfect opportunity for Bigpoint to open its games to a diverse Russian speaking community and for Mail.Ru Group to benefit from Bigpoint.com’s large network of almost 200 million registered users.”
“As successful browser game providers, Bigpoint.com and Mail.ru are a match made in heaven,” commented Nils Holger Henning, CCO at Bigpoint.
In April, 2011, the Mail.ru game portal, which offers a wide variety of online games, had an audience of 8.2 million unique users between 12 and 54, according to TNS.
Last year, games accounted for $99.8 million, or almost a third, of Mail.Ru Group’s $324 million in revenues. Russian business daily Vedomosti quoted analyst Anna Zaitseva as saying that the deal with Bigpoint could boost Mail.Ru Group’s games sales by up to 20%, not counting revenues generated by the distribution of its games through Bigpoint’s sites.
