Play140 Launching Public Beta For Twitter, SMS Games

Cambridge-based start-up Play140 announced the beta launch of its first three social games playable through Twitter and text messages: T.A.G. (The Acronym Game), Be Greedy, and Robot Smash Battle. All three titles are designed so that players can jump into them and compete with or against friends whether they're using Windows, Mac, or a smartphone. They can even play the games with a low-end "feature phone" using SMS. The developer emphasizes that its titles do not spam or clutter Twitter feeds, badger users to invite friends, or beg for money. Interested users can start playing T.A.G. and Be Greedy by following designated accounts and replying to prompts, while Robot Smash Battle is played with direct messages. In T.A.G., for example, which is the spiritual successor to online multiplayer game Acrophobia (designed by Play140's chief creative officer Andrea Shubert in 1995), players are invited to make up phrases based on an acronym, vote for submitted phrases, then receive points based on the results. Play140 intends to launch its titles first on Twitter, and then to other platforms like SMS/text-messaging and instant-messaging clients in early 2011. The company has previously mentioned that it plans to monetize its titles through subscriptions and licensing deals. "We believe in the power of language -- of words -- of text. Social games with words can be incredibly powerful," says Play140's CEO Shawn Broderick. "Facebook was not created to be a gaming destination, but over 200 million people worldwide are playing games there now; making it, by far, the world’s largest games platform." He adds, "We believe Twitter and other text platforms represent an untapped opportunity for entirely new forms of immersive, fun, engaging, social entertainment - with words.”