Artie aims to change the mobile gaming market by utilizing an alternative approach to playing games. It wants to offer a myriad of free, high concept, quality mobile games with deep gameplay across all genres that players can access by clicking a link from a social media page instead of needing to download it.
Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Ryan Horrigan started working on Artie nearly four years ago. He wanted to give players the ability to directly play free mobile games without having to go through Google or Apple to do so. Horrigan chose this method of business after discovering how much these megacorporations charged the developers to distribute their products.
Typically, many developers tend to go along with Google and Apple because it is seen as the only way of garnering the attention of potential customers. However, this method means that developers must give up a significant amount of royalties to the companies since both take commissions from the total revenue from paid mobile games and in-app purchases. Apple, especially, has a tight grip on the situation since it is the only platform where iOS users can access applications to use on their device.
Rather than go through that process, Horrigan wanted Artie to be a hybrid between cloud gaming and mobile gaming. This business model made sure that players were able to access Artie’s mobile games without having to download them while avoiding having to cede parts of profits to Apple and Google. Horrigan figured that since most youth spent most of their time on social media that providing a link to these games pasted on various social media pages would be the most ideal method of distribution. Furthermore, Artie can retain all rights to the games they develop specifically for the platform.
The first game featured on the platform was Pong Legends which is a mashup between fighting and pong games. Essentially, players operate anthropomorphic cartoon animals and go against each other in beer pong. The game offers various power-ups, spells, and superpowers that players collect to win the game. Ryan Horrigan designed Pong Legends to resonate with younger audiences and be social in nature, so that the game could maintain retention. The game is currently in its alpha stage, but it will soon be in beta in the near future. However, the game is not projected to launch until later on in the year. Meanwhile, Artie is developing other games that will be available on the platform for all who use the service to play.
With the mobile gaming market being quite competitive, Artie has some other challenges to overcome in order to reach new audiences. Since the platform aims to access players directly through social media, there are plans to leverage large influencers that will direct more potential customers to their product. Further, Horrigan wants to collaborate with many third-party studios in order to scale his business once Artie is offered more opportunities to grow. Currently, the Artie team consists of fifty members with developers and artists with backgrounds from PlayStation, Activision, Electronic Arts, Zynga, and Disney.
Artie has many investors backing its development: some names include YouTube founder Chard Hurley, Zynga founder Mark Pincus, Roblox Chief Product Officer Manuel Bronstein, and former TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer.