BOSTON, MA--(Marketwire - May 13, 2010) - SCVNGR is a weird company. Conventional wisdom suggests that most companies ought to go from consumer to enterprise. But today, SCVNGR announces that they're excitedly going the wrong way, expanding from their enterprise mobile gaming platform into the consumer space.
Over the last year, SCVNGR has focused exclusively on enterprise, perfecting their powerful location-based mobile gaming engine. Now SCVNGR is being used by over 600+ institutions including; Harvard, Princeton, MIT, the Smithsonian National Zoo, the City of Boston, the City of Philadelphia, SIGGRAPH and even the U.S. Navy.
But until now you could only play SCVNGR at places that had already built on SCVNGR. That was a lot of places, but not everywhere.
Not so anymore! Now you can play SCVNGR anywhere!
SCVNGR's launch into the consumer marketplace merges their powerful enterprise mobile gaming platform with an awesome casual mobile game for consumers.
The result is a unique real-world gaming experience. Because SCVNGR's game engine is so easily accessible (to even the most non-technical person), everyone who plays SCVNGR also has the opportunity to build SCVNGR.
And that's pretty cool. Because as of today, SCVNGR's officially out to build the game layer on top of the world. And what's even cooler is that they want you, me and everyone else to build it with them.
The new SCVNGR app is now available for free in both the Apple App Store and the Android Market.
So what's playing SCVNGR all about? And what do people build on SCVNGR? Great questions!
SCVNGR is a game about going places, doing challenges and earning points. SCVNGR places a premium on active, engaged user "challenges" (worth 2-5 points) as opposed to the still-fun, but more-passive, "check-ins" (worth only 1 point).
Here's how it works: You visit a place, say your favorite burrito shop, open up the SCVNGR app and are shown a list of challenges. One challenge might ask you to snap a pic for a couple points. Another to solve some location-based riddle that the owners of the shop have added. And yet a third to do the "Tin-Foil Origami" challenge where you must carefully unwrap your burrito and create an origami sculpture out of foil. Snap a photo of your creation for three points! Woot!
These challenges exist everywhere. From your local coffee shop, to the grocer on the corner, inside your favorite museum, to the Statue of Liberty and all the way back to your favorite restaurant. The average challenge takes less than six seconds.
Challenges are added by the locations themselves or by frequent visitors who've unlocked the ability to add their own challenges to that spot. On launch, over 20 million locations are playable within SCVNGR, allowing consumers to play SCVNGR anywhere, anytime.
"SCVNGR is building the game layer on top of the world. But if this game is going to be any fun at all, everyone's got to be able to build it with us," said Seth Priebatsch, the 21-year-old Chief Ninja of SCVNGR who founded the company while a freshman at Princeton University in 2008. "Our new app is a great next step in building this layer, allowing anyone to casually play SCVNGR at over 20 million places. Just fire up the SCVNGR app and jump in!"
"Playing SCVNGR makes every trip outside my doors a lot more fun," said David Khoury, an active SCVNGR player. "I love the creative nature of the challenges. Everywhere I go, whether it's down the street on an errand or visiting a new city, I'm pulling out my phone and having fun playing SCVNGR."
About SCVNGR
SCVNGR is part game, part game platform. It's a game all about going places, doing challenges and earning points. SCVNGR can be played for free from any mobile phone via iPhone app, Android app or even SMS. Any individual or enterprise can also build on SCVNGR by adding challenges at their favorite locations, making SCVNGR even more fun to play. SCVNGR is funded by Google Ventures and Highland Capital Partners. Visit www.scvngr.com to learn more.
Contact Information:
Media Contacts:
LaunchSquad for SCVNGR
Mike Farber or Emilie Cole
scvngr [at] launchsquad [dot] com
Boston: 617-872-0769
San Francisco: 415-625-8555