Mobile Game Maker Hopes to Score With Network

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Scopely Inc. is pressing pause on game-making for the moment to focus on a different role: mobile game network. The Hollywood company announced the names of the first five mobile game developers that will create and launch titles through its network. Among them are San Francisco’s Double Fine and Dallas’ Big Cave Games.

Scopely has already established itself as a successful maker of mobile games, releasing three titles last year that cracked the top 5 most downloaded for Apple Inc.’s iOS. Walter Driver, the company’s co-founder and chief executive, said the infrastructure it has to handle in-app purchases, coupled with the experience and relationships with advertisers, can be an asset to other creators – especially in such a competitive field.

“It’s a lot of work for an independent game studio to act as a mobile Sherpa and figure out how to sell advertising,” Driver said. “Their skill set and focus is making great games.”

Driver likens the relationship between Scopely and the developers to that of a TV network and studio. Just as CBS works with a variety of studios to create shows and uses its heft and connections to distribute them, so too will Scopely help independent studios create games and launch them as a co-branded effort.

Most of the games will be free to download, with money coming from advertising and in-app purchases. Driver said share of revenue will be negotiated independently for each studio. Scopely has 50 employees and has raised $8.5 million in venture capital.

Tops and Bottoms

MeUndies, an e-commerce site that sells men’s and women’s underwear, is expanding its offerings to shirts and socks. This is the first major update to the company’s product line since it came out of Santa Monica tech incubator Science Inc. last year.

The shirts, which MeUndies is manufacturing, sell for $20, while the socks, made by Dana Point clothing line Richer Poorer Inc., are $8.

Co-founder Jonathan Shokrian said MeUndies will continue its subscription option, which gives customers an item of clothing a month for a discount.

He also said the company would soon be closing an angel investor-led $1 million series A fundraising round.

Beach to Austin

L.A.’s tech firms are planning to make their presence known at this year’s South by Southwest festival. More than 20 local companies – a mix of startups and more established companies – will be presenting at Silicon Beach Sunday Funday.

The showcase isn’t an officially sanctioned event at the yearly tech-music-film festival in Austin, Texas, but the number of attendees from Los Angeles shows off the region’s growing relevance in tech.

“L.A. has as strong assemblage of companies, but they don’t get air time at the forefront,” said Nicole Jordan, who’s co-organizing the Funday event along with Digital L.A.’s Kevin Winston. “There is no bigger gathering of tech companies in one place than South by Southwest.”

Companies presenting at the showcase range from small startups such as Santa Monica social planning app Gonnabe, which will be launching a product, to publicly traded firms such as Cornerstone OnDemand Inc.

Student Incubator

Loyola Marymount University has joined the mounting pile of incubators in Los Angeles.

The new program, run through LMU’s business school, is designed as an educational endeavor that encourages students to dip their toes in entrepreneurship. But the incubator’s organizers also want to turn out profitable companies.

David Choi, an associate professor at the business school, is leading the incubator and has already accepted nine startups for the current semester.

“I want these companies to exist in the real world or, at the very least, make these students employable,” Choi said. “But ultimately the goal is to make some big companies.”

Upfront investments in the startups are about $2,000, Choi estimated, though that might soon increase.

University-led accelerators aren’t new to the region’s schools. Both UCLA and USC have a number of programs running through their business, science and engineering schools. But LMU might take advantage of its proximity to the Westside tech epicenter. Just below the bluffs of the school’s site is the Playa Vista scene, currently white hot with the recent additions of YouTube and ad tech firm Rubicon Project.


Losing Buzz

Buzzmedia recently announced a surprising round of layoffs as part of a restructuring.

In a company memo, newly appointed Chief Executive Steve Hansen announced the firm was going to be cutting a significant number of positions. In an interview, he confirmed 50 of its staff of 250 would be let go, but that the company was also in the process of hiring 25 employees.

The Hollywood web publisher owns a series of pop culture-focused online properties, including music sites Spin and Idolator. Hansen didn’t say whether Buzzmedia was going to try and sell off any of its properties.


Staff reporter Tom Dotan can be reached at [email protected] or (323) 549-5225, ext. 263.