Crowdstar’s Happy Island, built on the Sibblingz Social Game Engine, launches on Bing and includes a new search-based mini game.
Sibblingz is announcing it will be bringing the social-gaming hit, Happy Island, to Bing - further enhancing Microsoft’s game offerings on the search platform.
Customers on Bing will have the ability to play and progress through the first levels of Happy Island without the need to sign in, a first for the social gaming space. At the player’s discretion, they will be able to login using Facebook Connect and associate their gaming environment with their Facebook social graph to extend the fun further.
Simultaneously, Crowdstar will be releasing an enhancement to Happy Island which will be available to play from either Bing or Facebook. The addition will offer customers the ability to play a new mini game deeply integrated with the power of the Bing search engine, earning players in-game prizes from gem shards to gold coins.
Both the platform move to Bing and the search integrated gaming enhancement within Happy Island come within weeks of an agreement between Crowdstar and Microsoft. The rapid release of the title on Bing was only made possible through the use of the Sibblingz social gaming development platform.
“Partnering with Microsoft to bring the first social gaming title to Bing opens up some very exciting opportunities for Sibblingz and the social gaming industry,” says Ben Savage, founder of Sibblingz. “With this partnership, we’re really thinking outside the Facebook canvas.”
The use of the Sibblingz social gaming development platform dramatically reduced the engineering time necessary to bring the product to market. In an industry where Internet speed makes the difference between success and failure, the Sibblingz development platform helps reduce the risks and costs commonly associated with the formation of strategic partnerships.
“Crowdstar and Sibblingz have shown amazing agility with taking an idea from concept to reality in record time” says Parri Munsell, executive producer of Gaming on Bing at Microsoft. “Microsoft is excited to have Happy Island as the first social game available directly on Bing. We believe this launch brings several important innovations to the social gaming industry, starting with the ability to experience great game play before being required to sign in. Additionally, the search integrated mini game introduces a fun and exciting way to experience the power of Bing search right inside of the game.”
Prior to this launch, Happy Island, based on the Sibblingz platform, has been available on Facebook, iPad, iPhone and Android devices. Bringing Happy Island to Microsoft’s gaming properties extends this platform leadership and allows players to experience Happy Island wherever they game. Sibblingz offers a proprietary platform for select global partners, helping create truly multi-device games.
