There’s no denying that, when it comes to mobile gaming, you could argue that Android currently lags behind the offering on Apple devices. Google might be one step closer to changing that with a recent acquisition of mobile social game developer, Social Deck.
Social Deck games were downloaded no less than a million times in 2009. Their game portfolio includes Color Connect, Shake & Spell and Pet Hero. The company is based in Toronto and San Francisco and was founded by Anish Acharya and Jeson Patel who came from Amazon and Microsoft respectively.
The move is a really interesting one from Google. It shows that it is serious about pushing forward gaming on Android and will lead by example if it has to. Social Deck is currently an iPhone and Blackberry centric company so it remains to be seen if these titles will no take a back seat to Android development. Buying the company might not be only about Android though. Google have been rumoured to be looking to start their own social or social gaming network and their aquisition of social media company Slide seems to support that.
As yet there’s no info on how much cash the big G plunked down the company, but it received $250k of funding in 2009.
Here’s the quote from the Social Deck home page.
SocialDeck is joining Google!
Big news! We’re super excited to announce that someone found our social games as fun as you have — in this case, that “someone” is Google. SocialDeck has been acquired and we’ve joined the Google team.
We started this company with the goal of connecting friends through social games on all kinds of exciting mobile devices. We’ve been amazed and humbled by all the stories and experiences our customers (you!) have shared with us.
Thank you for all your support and for being part of SocialDeck’s success so far.
Happy Shaking!
– The SocialDeck Team