Inside Social Games

One of the few full-fledged MMORPGs on a mobile device, TibiaME is a fantasy title wrought with all the magic and knights that are reminiscent of so many mainstream games. Built by ClipSoft, the massive multiplayer online role-playing game has been seeing strong growth over the past year.

TibiaME runs on any Java enabled device, so gamers can potentially play it on many different models of phones around the world. This platform choice also means catering to a rather low common denominator as far as technology is concerned. The game is… simplistic-looking, to say the least.

Despite graphical limitations, the game has everything a PC-based massive multiplayer online game has: Leveling, dungeons, social play, and so on. However, having been around since 2003, it does seem a little dated. Nonetheless, the first half of 2009 has proven to be exceedingly fruitful for TibiaME. It has pulled in over 10,000 subscribers. According to Benjamin Zuckerer, Product Manager for TibiaME, the growth has been “exponential” since 2008.

The growth is due, greatly in part, to international expansion. Though having a game, especially an MMO, stretch overseas is not uncommon, the situation here certainly proves how lucrative such a move can become. It was last year, that ClipSoft launched its game over in Indonesia leading to an impressive 105% jump in its subscriber base.

Thus far, TibiaME now has an active player base of roughly 40,000 players. According to Andreas Weikl, Marketing Manager for ClipSoft, TibiaME is now, not only the first mobile MMO, but also the biggest, worldwide.