WildTangent
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| WildTangent | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | Washington (1998) |
| Headquarters | 18578 NE 67th Court, Bldg. 5, Redmond, WA 98052 |
| Key people | Alex St. John |
| Industry | Online/Video Games Developer/Publisher/Distributor |
| Products | See the list or visit website |
| Website | WildTangent.com |
WildTangent is a game network, privately held in the US that exclusively powers game services for PC manufacturers in the US, as well as a number of vertical sites and portals. Collectively, WildTangent’s owned and operated service reaches over 15 million monthly gamers in the US and Europe with a catalog of more than 450 games from nearly 100 developers.
The company also manages the premium advertising sales for a group of vertical gaming properties comprised of MMOGs and game portals including Jagex’s Runescape and Artix’s AdventureQuest.
It owned a patent portfolio covering in-game advertising and game delivery technologies and operates CPM-based advertising campaigns for more than 50 US brands.
WildTangent monetizes online game play through a combination of digital retail purchase, subscription, advertising and micro-transactions using brand-new micro-currency called WildCoins.
Contents |
[edit] Games
[edit] Gameplay method
WildCoins are a micro-currency WildTangent launched in the fall of 2006 designed to give gamers another way to pay for game play other than full retail purchase. WildCoins are much like quarters used at a traditional arcade. Gamers can purchase WildCoins and use them to play any games on the network. Each time the gamer inserts the required number of coins, he or she can play the game for up to 24 hours, or until they voluntarily exit the game, without having to use more WildCoins.
Advertisers can also purchase WildCoins and sponsor free game sessions. If the gamer agrees to see a short video advertisement while the game is loading, the advertiser will insert WildCoins making the game free to the player.
[edit] List of games
Approximately 30 of about 450 games were produced by the company's own WildTangent Game Studios. The WildTangent Game Network also offers more than 400 games from other game developers and publishers.
Originally, WildTangent produced advergames for various companies, including Nike, Coke, Olay and Ford. The company no longer develops advergames. WildTangent used to be a publisher of Sandlot Games. But now, it's only the distributor due to the rebrand, new website and new corporating of Sandlot Games.
[edit] Criticism
[edit] Plugin bundle
- WildTangent Web Driver:
WildTangent produces an online gaming plugin bundle that consists of WildTangent Web Driver, WildTangent Multiplayer Library, WildTangent Updater, and WildTangent GameChannel. The bundle can be downloaded as an EXE file or through an ActiveX control from WildTangent.com. It is sometimes bundled with Windows Media Player and Winamp plugins. AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) uses WildTangent for its games service and bundles the Multiplayer Library, Updater, and WebDriver with it. The installation of the software was not stated in AIM's EULA until version 5.5.3595.
- Game Console:
As the beginning of 2007, WildTangent has removed its Web Driver bundle. About delay of half year, since June 2007, it has begun to coming back to bundle its new software: Game Console, this tool provide like a catalog helps launch, view shortly the main information of WildTangent's games. This issue makes a larger file download, longer file installing, reinstall every time users install games from WildTangent and it's also an advertising service for WildTangent
[edit] Controversy
Some users find that the company's products have an adverse effect on their PC's performance.
WildTangent asserts that the software bundle is safe, but many antispyware programs classify it as adware/spyware, mainly because it reports activity and games played to WildTangent servers, such as number of times played, length of time played and machine specifications, such as OS version, processor speed, RAM, and DirectX version in order to more finely tune games and services to casual gamers. WildTangent is preinstalled on Toshiba, Dell, Gateway, Compaq, and HP computers. [1]
The bundle is removed by the antispyware program Spybot - Search & Destroy, and it is in several Internet hosts files[2] used by many people to block rogue and criminal sites.[3] The antispyware program CounterSpy used to say that it's OK to keep WildTangent, but it now says that the spyware Winpipe is "possibly distributed with the adware bundler WildTangent or from a threat included in that bundler". [1]
Tenebril's SpyCatcher Express states that the software's silent installation as bundled with other software or hardware is the main reason that it is listed as spyware and/or malware. They also say that WildTangent is a questionable program, because of its ad generation and that it can also download and install other software. Tenebril, however, does point out that you have to trust WildTangent that what it does install is benign. This is generally not considered a smart choice for security.[4]
[edit] See also
- WildGames - a WildTangent Games Network
- Game Console
- Wanako Studios
- Sandlot Games
