Keesing Media Group acquires CoolGames to expand into casual games and new game platforms

Amsterdam, July 6, 2023 – Today Keesing Media Group, the world’s largest puzzle and braintainment company, has announced that it acquired CoolGames, a leading games developer of high-quality casual games for post app-store game platforms.

Keesing Media Group (Keesing) and CoolGames, both headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, have reached agreement on a takeover whereby Keesing assumes ownership of CoolGames with immediate effect. With the acquisition, Keesing aims to add casual games to its extensive portfolio of digital puzzles and braintainment products. Additionally, via CoolGames’ network of ‘instant game’ platforms and websites, Keesing will gain access to new and younger player audiences.

CoolGames is specialized in developing high quality casual games using HTML5 web technology. The company published games via many new ‘Big Tech’ platforms, such as Facebook Play, Google GameSnacks and Microsoft Start, as well as various traditional gaming websites. For its games, CoolGames often works with famous IP, such as Monopoly Sudoku (Hasbro), Angry Birds (Rovio) and Farm Merge Valley (Zynga). Last year CoolGames had a massive hit with its Battleship (Hasbro) game on Snapchat, which was played by tens of millions of people. CoolGames also develops its own games IP.

Keesing is the world’s largest puzzle- and braintainment company, with offices in 12 European countries and the US, and active in even more markets. The company specializes in publishing dozens of different puzzle types every single day, from word-finders and crosswords, to sudokus, logic puzzles and brain-training products.

Philip Alberdingk Thijm, CEO of Keesing: “The acquisition of CoolGames is a further step in putting our digital ambitions into practice. CoolGames’ platform partners will benefit from Keesing’s vast content databases and deep knowledge about good puzzles. Additionally, our current B2B media clients will be able to offer a much broader selection of both puzzles and casual games to their own clients.”

Laurens Rutten, founder of CoolGames adds: “By teaming up with Keesing, we can now bring our existing titles to players in Keesings client base of international media companies. And we also see a growing popularity of good word-games and other engaging puzzle-types in the entire games market. With Keesing’s expertise in puzzles and our know-how of both single-player and social casual games for various platforms, we expect to develop successful new IP in the coming years.”

CoolGames and its team of more than 40 game-professionals will continue to operate independently under the new Keesing ownership.

Zynga and CoolGames Partner to Launch Farm Merge Valley on Facebook Gaming

San Mateo, CA and Amsterdam – November 3, 2022Zynga Inc.(Nasdaq: ZNGA), a wholly-owned publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), and CoolGames, an Amsterdam-based HTML5 games development company, today announced the launch of Farm Merge Valley on Facebook Gaming.

Farm Merge Valley is an agriculture-themed merge and building game enhanced for
strong social play. In the game, players manage their farmland including growing crops, harvesting, raising livestock, completing orders, and expanding their farming territory. The game gets bigger with every discovery made and players are able to receive train tickets to visit the farmlands of their friends and family. Players can assist their friends with tasks that will earn both them and their friends rewards in the game. Players are also encouraged to invite their friends directly to help clear land and other obstacles in their way.

“We are thrilled to partner with CoolGames to launch Farm Merge Valley on Facebook Gaming,” said Scott Koenigsberg, Zynga’s Chief Product Officer. “CoolGames understands how to create groundbreaking, high-quality HTML5 games with years of experience launching games on Facebook Gaming. Farm Merge Valley expands the possibility of HTML5 through its social and building hybrid model and we cannot wait for our global audience to engage with the game.”

“Merge is one of the fastest growing game genres in mobile and it has been a great experience to work on this directly with Zynga, who have been pioneers with many legendary titles in this space,” said Laurens Rutten, Founder and CEO of CoolGames. “We believe that there’s a vast untapped potential for deep and high-quality merge games on HTML5 game platforms too.”

The game is available to play on Facebook Gaming. Players can visit the Farm Merge Valley Facebook Page for further player tips and updates on Farm Merge Valley.

About Zynga Inc.

Zynga is a global leader in interactive entertainment with a mission to connect the world through games and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. With massive global reach in more than 175 countries and regions, the combined diverse portfolio of popular game franchises has been downloaded more than 6 billion times on mobile, including CSR Racing™, Dragon City, Empires & Puzzles™, FarmVille™, Golf Rival™, Hair Challenge™, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spells™, High Heels!™, Merge Dragons!™, Merge Magic!™, Monster Legends, Toon Blast™, Top Eleven, Toy Blast™, Two Dots, Words With Friends™, and Zynga Poker™. Zynga is also an industry-leading next-generation platform with the ability to optimize programmatic advertising and yields at scale with Chartboost, a leading mobile advertising and monetization platform. Founded in 2007, Zynga is headquartered in California with locations in North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.zynga.com or follow Zynga on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, or the Zynga blog.

ABOUT TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE

Headquartered in New York City, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is a leading developer, publisher, and marketer of interactive entertainment for consumers around the globe. The Company develops and publishes products principally through Rockstar Games, 2K, Private Division, and Zynga. Our products are currently designed for console gaming systems, PC, and Mobile including smartphones and tablets, and are delivered through physical retail, digital download, online platforms, and cloud streaming services. The Company’s common stock is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the symbol TTWO.

ABOUT COOLGAMES

CoolGames is a pioneer in bringing high quality casual games to HTML5 channels in the post app-store era. The company has launched games for many new ‘Big Tech’ game platforms including Facebook Instant Games. Its catalog contains both fully in-house developed titles, as well as games based on famous IPs, including Battleship and Monopoly Sudoku.

The company was founded in 2010 to prove that mobile games don’t have to be limited to the app-stores alone. Using 100% HTML5-technology, CoolGames has been publishing hundreds of games since. The company’s headquarters and in-house studio are based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, with a satellite office in Tokyo. For more information about CoolGames, please visit corporate.coolgames.com.

CoolGames partners with Snap to bring Hasbro’s Battleship to Snapchat

CoolGames partners with Snap to bring Hasbro’s Battleship to Snapchat

AMSTERDAM, 30 June, 2021 – CoolGames has released Hasbro’s Battleship Game for Snap Games, Snapchat’s HTML5 gaming platform. Snapchat’s 500 million monthly users can now challenge each other and instantly engage in the naval combat fun of the original Battleship on any mobile device.

Battleship has reached close to four million players since it soft launched on Snap Games two weeks ago. Its retention rate is one of the highest on the platform.

Snap is teaming up with CoolGames as its first partner to integrate their new asynchronous social features like Custom Chat Updates to help games become more social, shareable and retentive experiences. Coming soon, Battleship players will be able to search for and fire at their enemy’s fleet whenever they want, this is true even when their challenger is not online. They will be notified when their opponent fires back.

“We are thrilled to introduce this iconic board game to Snapchatters,” says John Imah, Head of Games and Brand Partnerships at Snap Inc. “As an expert in developing cloud-based HTML5 games, CoolGames perfectly captured what players have cherished for years about Battleship while ensuring it works seamlessly inside the Snapchat platform.”

“Snap Games is growing at an impressive speed, becoming one of the world’s leading game platforms outside the traditional app-stores,” says Laurens Rutten, founder and co-CEO of CoolGames. “Snapchatters have really embraced the idea of seamlessly playing and sharing mobile game experiences with their friends from within their favourite messenger app. We’re delighted to be Snap’s partner of choice and to bring Battleship to their millions of users for the first time.”

The Post App Store Era
People increasingly favour platforms where they can instantly join the games that their friends are playing, without the hassle of downloading it first from a classic app-store.

“Cloud based HTML5 is the technology of choice in gaming for a growing number of next generation platforms from ‘big tech’ players such as Snap,” continues Rutten. “HTML5 has come of age and these companies are reaching massive audiences with it.”

About the Game:
Battleship for Snap Games has been designed with gameplay and animations in mind to specifically appeal to Snap’s Gen Z and Millennial audiences. It is a real-time, turn-based multiplayer game where users can engage in sea battles against their Snapchat friends. Through CoolGames’ matchmaking system, people can challenge random Snapchatters and their friends for battles. Special power-ups such as the Air Raid can be unlocked to help defeat the opponent’s fleet.

Battleship is the second title for Snap Games developed by CoolGames’ in-house studio and is based on cloud-based HTML5 technology. The company launched Storm Skaters for Snapchat in September 2020.

“CoolGames continues to successfully adapt Battleship to work seamlessly in messenger and social platforms, while maintaining the core ‘You sunk my battleship fun’ that people have enjoyed for years”, said Richard Cleveland, Vice President of Digital Gaming at Hasbro. “We are thrilled to be able to bring this classic family favourite game to exciting and fast growing new platforms, like Snap Games.”

Battleship can be launched from within the Snapchat app
➔ A gallery of game images and the trailer can be found here

Secrets of success for voice gaming

Amsterdam, October 29, 2020 – People who joined Google’s developer event on 8 October learned about all of Google Assistant’s new platform features. We are delighted Google highlighted our voice assistant game, Guess the Drawing as a successful use case during the event.

People love voice assistants because they make everyday activities like gaming more fun. Google is committed to creating memorable experiences with voice assistants that engage people and they can trust on Google Assistant.

At Google’s event, Niranjan Kumar of Google invited our co-CEO Laurens to talk about the impact of voice on gaming.

In their video interview Laurens predicts voice control will be a common feature in many more game platforms to come. He also explains how the CoolGames team created Guess the Drawing. Check out the full interview below.

We were thrilled when Google chose us to develop voice control games for Google Assistant. Guess the Drawing has been live since July. Horizontal Crosswords launched earlier this month.

People seem to really love the games we made for Google. Google are also enthusiastic. Niranjan says about our partnership, “We love collaborating together and I think that was our goal as well.”

CoolGames brings voice-controlled crossword puzzles to Google Assistant

AMSTERDAM, October 8th, 2020 – Google has chosen CoolGames to develop the first voice-controlled crossword game for Google Assistant.

Horizontal Crosswords, a uniquely designed crossword game for Smart Display devices, such as the Google Nest Hub is available today. Games for Smart Display devices take full advantage of the screen in combination with voice and touch controls for instant, easy fun.

With Horizontal Crosswords, puzzle fans can solve fresh crosswords with various difficultly levels, every day. The game lets players say the correct answers or navigate through the words by giving voice commands. When all the horizontal crosswords are correctly resolved, a vertical solution word is revealed.

John Hsu, Product Manager Google Assistant at Google, says, “We are thrilled to bring such a popular puzzle genre into the living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms of the Google Assistant user community.”

CoolGames developed the game in close partnership with Google and Keesing, the largest puzzle and braintainment company in Europe.

Laurens Rutten, founder and co-CEO of CoolGames, comments, “Word games and crosswords have been among the most popular puzzle-genres for more than a century. Played by millions of people every day, via puzzle books, newspapers or mobile apps. It’s a logical step to now also be able to solve a word game by natural spoken language.”

Horizontal Crosswords is now available in English. Other languages will follow soon.

Philip Alberdingk Thijm, CEO of Keesing, reacts, “Keesing aims at following consumers and allowing them to consume our content in the way they want, when they want it. Through this exciting new partnership with CoolGames and Google we take a next step in our digital strategy and offer our fun puzzle content through the new Google Assistant games platform.”

Just this August, CoolGames launched its first voice operated game Guess the Drawing for Google. The game lets players guess what’s being drawn on the screen, as quickly as they can. More voice operated games are planned for the near future.

CoolGames releases multiplayer Storm Skaters for Snap Games

AMSTERDAM, September 15, 2020 – Today CoolGames globally released Storm Skaters, a real-time 3D multiplayer skater game, available exclusively on the Snap Games platform.

Storm Skaters is a fast-paced action game, letting players skate against each other on a flying hoverboard. The goal is to stay ahead of the approaching storm, while avoiding obstacles and traps left behind by other players. The first player reaching the finish line wins the match.

The game ties into Snapchat’s social ecosystem and enables seamless play with friends, or random players when no friends are available. Storm Skaters can be launched instantly from a conversation within Snapchat, without the need for downloading the game first and get connected through account-linking, as is needed with mobile games from the traditional app-stores. Snapchat found that friends playing together spend more than double the time as when playing with unknown random players.

“Although we have released multi-player games on other platforms before, we’re thrilled that Storm Skaters is our first real-time multi-player game in full 3D and uniquely aimed at Gen-Z, Snapchat’s core audience”, said Laurens Rutten, Founder of CoolGames. “It shows how HTML5 has matured as a cloud technology for games over the last years. We’re already looking at developing more titles for this platform and the Snapchat community.”

Snap’s Head of Games and Entertainment Partnerships John Imah said: “Our focus has always been collaborating with developers to create fun social game experiences our community can play with friends. CoolGames has demonstrated an excellent example of this by developing our newest Snap Game, Storm Skaters. We’re really looking forward to continuing to grow our partnership together.”

Storm Skaters is now available for Snapchat users worldwide and can be started from the game launcher within Snapchat.

10 years of HTML5 games: mission accomplished?

AMSTERDAM, August 20, 2020 – It has been ten years since Steve Jobs wrote his now infamous letter to Adobe, announcing that he Flash would never be allowed on the iPhone. Instead, Jobs embraced HTML5 as the open technology of the future.

In his keynote for the White Nights conference, Laurens Rutten, Founder and co-CEO of CoolGames, takes you on a journey of ten years of HTML5 games. Laurens will discuss the main HTML5 distribution channels in the market today, explains what differentiates them and will take a short peek into some of the newest HTML5 game platforms.


Voice game Guess the Drawing launched for Google Assistant

AMSTERDAM, July 31st, 2020 – Today CoolGames and Google launched Guess the Drawing, a new voice operated game uniquely designed for Smart Display devices, such as the Google Nest Hub.

Games for Smart Display devices take full advantage of the screen in combination with voice and touch controls for instant, easy fun. Guess the Drawing lets players guess what’s being drawn on the screen, as quickly as they can. They just need to say the correct answer or navigate through the game by giving voice commands.

The game features new drawings every day, in various difficulty levels. With Party mode, multiple players, for example different family members, can compete with each other simultaneously. Laurens Rutten, CEO of CoolGames says: “It has been a great experience working closely together with Google on our first voice operated game! As more and more people will have smart assistants in their living room, kitchen or bedroom, we believe voice operated games will become a natural additional to playing games via other platforms.”

View the official launch-trailer of Guess the Drawing here.

For more examples of games for Smart Display devices, check here.

CoolGames and Aardman team up on cloud-based gaming partnership

AMSTERDAM/LONDON, April 29th, 2020 – Amsterdam-based gaming company CoolGames today announces a partnership with Aardman, the UK based multi-award-winning animation studio, to bring various HTML5 games of Shaun the Sheep to casual cloud-based gaming. Production of the first game has already begun and will be available within the foreseeable future.

Robbert Hoogstraten, Head of Business, of CoolGames: “We are proud to bring Shaun the Sheep to our family orientated audience across the world”

Adam Vincent-Garland, Senior Product Development, of Aardman: ” Our global audience is always looking for new and exciting ways to interact with the world’s most famous sheep. We are excited to work with CoolGames to welcome Shaun the Sheep into this fast-growing interactive world.’

OK.ru a big social medium adopting cloud-based gaming, using HTML5 technology

AMSTERDAM/MOSCOW, November 22nd, 2019 – Amsterdam-based gaming company CoolGames is launch partner on the OK.ru social platform and brings the game Cookie Connect extra to all members of the platform.

Cookie Connect Extra is connected with the virtual currencies (IAP) of the platform called “OK” These coins can be spent to buy power-ups in the game to help the user to complete a variety of 180 challenging levels. The game is directly playable within the browser, using HTML5 technology. Robbert Hoogstraten, Head of Business of CoolGames: “We are delighted to bring our classic IP “Cookie Connect extra” to the Russian platform OK.ru”