RIM eyes social gaming with Scoreloop buy

By on Jun 8, 2011 at 11:15 PM
Gaming June 8, 2011

As Research In Motion continues on its quest to recapture consumers’ hearts, minds and wallets, the Canadian BlackBerry maker on Tuesday announced its acquisition of Scoreloop. California-based Scoreloop is a self-professed pioneer in mobile social gaming. According to a post on RIM’s Inside BlackBerry developer blog, the team at Scoreloop is “bringing their expertise in creating social and collaborative gaming toolkits for mobile developers to the BlackBerry platform.” Scoreloop had previously developed tools that supported cross-platform social gaming, and the company says it will continue to support cross-platform solutions following the its transition to RIM, though it will focus mainly on RIM’s QNX-based operating system.

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  • sirpaul

    Don’t know why, but the thought of RIM making a gaming device, and said device being popular just makes me chuckle! I have lots of love for RIM, but cmon…gaming? Get your consumer phones right, then look into gaming.

    If the device handles anything like the PlayBook, though, they just might have a shot at a small market share. That is, if the device can run Android apps…We shall see in 4 years time!

    • http://genesisx.myopenid.com/ Genesis

      The thought might make you chuckle, but in reality their smart-phones have inadvertently become a huge hit among consumers in large pockets of the world.  Take a trip to NYC or London if you need proof.  They’ve taken a bit of a beating lately for not having some consumer friendly features, but it is good to see do something about it.  Yup, we’ll see in 4 years time.  My prediction: they’ll take bit of dip this year but will be back near the top once QNX matures.

      • sirpaul

        I agree with you. I live in Kitchener (20 minutes from Waterloo) and study in Waterloo, literally a 5 minute walk from RIMs offices….their devices are extremely popular here. I just don’t currently see it taking off anytime soon. The key to a great entertainment device is not only a great device, but a large user base. RIM is just not generally regarded as a ‘fun’ type of company – their image is currently that of a serious company that gears its devices towards enterprise users. I hope this will change with time, but my hopes aren’t too high. QNX is certainly looking promising, so who knows…

      • Anonymous

        Definitely local brand loyalty. I live in Waterloo and I wouldn’t think of getting any other device because everyone I know is on BlackBerry. I have 120+ people on BBM and I SMS maybe 3 or 4 people.

      • Rudy Herfurth

        I think that’s more of a Canada / rest of the world thing.  Number one selling smartphone in Canada is the Blackberry not just Kitchener-Waterloo

        This is an American site, and of course there is more brand loyalty to Apple.

  • Jayrflow

    first!!!

    • sirpaul

      Nope. First idiot maybe? Judging by your “she has a nice rack. id bang” comment, I’m probably not too far off with my assumption.

  • Anonymous

    Scoreloop is based out of Munich, Germany not California as you noted. Where did you get California from?

    • sirpaul

      Zach has been looking at too many “Designed in California” labels lately, maybe. The first line in the original article is

      “WASHINGTON — BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced Tuesday it has purchased Scoreloop, a Germany-based company…”

      so now sure where Zacky pulled Cali from.

  • Anonymous

    Nearly 2 days late to the party, Zach.
    How about you put down the iPhone and try to keep up to the other tech blogs? We all see where your priorities are, but frankly, its getting pathetic.

    • sirpaul

      He is too busy helping Jon write up the all-important “Apple iOS 5: Day x” articles…gosh, get a clue!

    • http://twitter.com/seanKELLEHER Sean Kelleher

      I was thinking the same thing. Next they’re going to tell us about congressman Anthony Weiner.

  • http://about.me/brandonmccall brandonmccall

    RIM is a non-motherf#%!ing-factor.

    • Tony

      people that say “non-motherf#%!ing-factor” are usually the ones that are non-motherf#%!ing-factors

      • http://about.me/brandonmccall brandonmccall

        It’s all jokes.

      • Tony

        no…its all motherf#%!ing jokes

  • Max

    Who are the morons running things over there? What a stupid buy. First come out with a decent modern device and developers will come naturally. Score loop?

    • Steve Jenkins

      How is a company buying up other companies it can afford for future implementation ever a bad idea? Have you ever thought the strategy to build a better modern device begins with ideas? The recent company purchases RIM has made already have developers that have been working specifically with that business model and know what they are doing. I have a feeling that if Google or Apple bought up this company people would be praising them for that. Basically the Playbook is a decent modern device, but people complain about the lack of developers, so rim is purchasing UI firms, gaming firms, and releasing SDK on a  monthly basis so that in the near future of QNX the phones and Playbook can be more of a consumer device, but still, hatred towards them. Just come out of the closet and say RIM can do no right in your eyes.

      • Max

        How did that AOL/TIme warner acquisition work? Your premise that companies buying other companies appears always fruitful is wrong. They may *think* future implementation is a good idea when in fact it may not be, ala Time Warner/AOL or Daimler Benz/Chrysler, etc etc etc etc……

      • Steve Jenkins

        The AOL/TW merger was and is still, the largest merger in American business history. The acquisition of Scoreloop, TAT, Ubitexx, etc, Are mere trickles in RIMs pond. Plus, they are not trying to monopolize a complete industry. They are merely trying to improve upon their brand, and the companies they are purchasing are not conglomerates of their said industry on their own. Most of RIMs acquiring’s, as of late, are creative companies bringing in fresh viewpoints on UI interface, social interactivity, and productivity while Ubitexx is a security based company. While buying up companies that go beyond said companies means, and trying to overtake a complete market (ie. AOL/TW) is absolutely mindless, as you brought up. RIM is doing nothing close to that, and to compare any recent acquisition of companies by others to AOL/TW is a sidestep to the point, that this is a good thing for RIM, and to become a more consumer friendly company. RIM has to step out of the box and put some new creativity behind their products and this purchase, and recent ones, are the right step forward. However, while nothing is guaranteed in life, this is far from the AOL/TW merger.

  • Securitywiz

    make devices consumers want and better OSs and this would be the least of your problems

  • Whyerd

    Let’s face it, RIM never saw the writing on the wall by locking themselves in to just their hardware, and not seeing the change in IT where the consumer/end-user would dictacte to corporate IT the devices the users wanted to carry. 

    I had high hopes that BB Connect would have continued development (hindsight for RIM) as they would not care as much about this battle against the Apple/Google products, or would they need to purchase Ubitexx.  Had they kept up with BB Connect and had that work cross platform with iOS and Droid they would be able to make a killing on new CAL’s.  Now RIM is in a constant game of catch-up (which I don’t think they will evey surpass the fruit or bot) on the hardware front and seeing a bunch of MDM’s (Good, MobileIron, Zenprise) in the rear-view mirror waiting to capture CAL’s on all those devices.

    We can all hope that the PB and QNX on the handheld will be the savior, but let’s face the fact that the end user is now the driving force, not corpoarte IT and unless RIM can capture that market again, it won’t matter what they do on the corporate side. 

  • sirpaul

    Are you RIM? Why say “note to self” if you’re not?

    Anyways…they are buying companies so they can make a better phone. Kind of like pretty much every big company (including Apple) but others to add to the designs of their products. It’s not just about the actual company, but the IP and patents that come along with the deal. It can be cheaper to just buy the company rather than pay for your own R&D and/or pay licensing fees to patent holders.

    • Drew

      “…they are buying up companies so they can make a better phone”. No shit Sherlock… really??  Obviously my point flew over your head like F-16′s buzzing the tower. My point is, what have they done with these acquisitions?? Thrown out a rushed-to-market tablet without email functionality and has set to launch a couple of handsets (9900/9930) that won’t be compatible when QNX does come with handsets. Why?? OS 7 is a fraud and RIM is a FAIL!!!!

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