Microsoft to publish Arkadium games for multiple platforms, likely including Windows Phone

Dethtris Flash game

Today Microsoft and Arkadium, a developer of coincidental and social games (as well as socially coincidental games), appear a multi-year, multi-game publishing agreement. Microsoft Studios volition bring several of Arkadium'southward titles to multiple unnamed platforms over the next few years. Truth exist told, the platforms have names, simply the 2 companies just aren't sharing them even so.

Arkadium'south expertise is with highly casual Facebook and Flash games – they haven't made of an impression in the mobile arena yet. Still, this understanding could be extremely promising. Arkadium'due south best known title, Mahjongg Dimensions, is their single iPhone game of annotation (pictured below) and an extremely skilful candidate for a Windows Phone port. Dimensions basically brings the classic game of mahjong solitaire (AKA Shanghai) to the third dimension, allowing players to rotate the field of mahjong tiles every bit they search for matching pairs. Mahjongg Dimensions would as well translate hands to Xbox Live Arcade, maybe even with Kinect support.

Mahjongg Dimensions iOS

As for Arkadium's hefty library of Flash games, Dethtris (pictured at top) would near appeal to the mainstream crowd. Information technology mixes platforming with the falling block genre – kind of a reverse take on Tetris Plus. Here, players take on the function of a hapless young explorer as he runs, jumps, and climbs through bite-sized jungle-themed levels, collecting treasure and dodging giant falling blocks along the fashion. Dethtris could work on mobile phones thanks to its unproblematic controls and curt levels, but an Xbox Live Arcade release is fifty-fifty more likely. Nosotros've seen such a transition before with last year's XBLA port of Fancy Pants Adventures, some other Flash platformer from Armor Games and EA.

Of form, Arkadium'southward press release does not mention actual titles, so that'southward my own speculation. But the release does spell out the reasoning for both parties behind the deal. Arkadium wants to expand their evolution to new platforms, while Microsoft hungers for a piece of the social games pie. Hey, maybe the partnership will motivate the big MS to finally bring some actual social features to Windows Phone games! We tin can just dream…

Source: Arkadium via Joystiq. Thank you Mike to the Peck for the tip!

Caput past the intermission for the full press release.

Arkadium Signs Multi-Year, Multi-Game Partnership With Microsoft Studios

Leader in casual and social games to develop multiple exclusive games cross-platform

New York, NY – January 4th 2022 – Arkadium, a top game development studio in New York Metropolis today announced it has signed a strategic partnership to develop coincidental and social games on multiple platforms to be launched by Microsoft Studios. The multi-year, multi-game partnership is an evolution of the relationship the two companies accept been developing over the previous two years.

"Arkadium has a ten-year track record of developing entertaining and well-architected casual and social games," said Matt Booty, GM of Continued Experiences for Microsoft Studios. "Our squad is excited to be partnering with a developer that we believe volition help united states of america entertain millions of people as we expand our achieve to a broader audience."

"We are very excited to exist working with Microsoft Studios to develop coincidental and social cross-platform experiences," said Kenny Rosenblatt, CEO of Arkadium. "We have been looking to strategically partner with a company that tin help catapult our business organisation and advance Arkadium's cross platform game development. Microsoft is the perfect partner to aid u.s. realize our growth strategy."

About Arkadium

Arkadium, creators of the largest library of casual games in the world, has been a acme game developer for the by decade. The company'southward hitting games, including Mahjongg Dimensions, are distributed worldwide to over ten million gamers per month on the spider web, Facebook, iPhone and iPads. A top 20 Comscore game benefactor, Arkadium has been the longstanding games partner of MSN, Hearst Magazines Digital Media, ESPN, ABC, Lifetime, Discovery and many more distinguished brands. Family unit owned and operated, Arkadium has grown organically since 2001 to more than 100 employees in offices in New York Urban center, Los Angeles, Toronto and Ukraine. For more information visit http://www.arkadium.com.

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