Game of War dev using matchmaking tech to beef up New Zealand's transport systems

Game of War developer MZ, which shed the name Machine Zone as part of a recent rebrand, is using its online matchmaking technology to improve New Zealand's public transport system. 

By harnessing and reshaping the tech, MZ has created an app that lets the New Zealand government track and analyze how its public transport systems are performing. 

Soon, civilians will be able to tap into that network to find out where their buses or trains are, allowing them to anticipate and avoid potential delays. 

Speaking with CNBC, MZ founder and CEO, Gabe Leydon, explained the grand plan is to network entire cities in one real-time environment.  

"MZ is really a real-time technology company. We've been focusing on many-to-many, kind of massive environments where millions of people can interact with each other at once," said Leydon.

"Soon, entire cities will be networked in one real-time environment, which will create a level of efficiency that the world hasn't seen yet. Anybody who's taken a bus knows that you should get to the stop 15, 30 minutes early. All of that is going to end."

During its rebrand, MZ also unveiled RTplatform, a scalable, cloud-based data processing platform that's being licensed out to help devs improve their own apps and services. 

RTplatform has since become its own division within MZ, which has ambitions of using the tech to take on big names like Google and Amazon. 

"We hope to do many-to-many applications. This is an infrastructure that allows you to do some extremely large things in real time at scale," explained Leydon, speaking to VentureBeat at the time. 

“Our new platform is 100 times bigger than [Game of War's]. It’s a new way of looking at real-time applications. I hope MZ and its legacy is to bring about the many-to-many Internet. The ultimate goal is putting everybody in the same place at once.”