Jam City, Inc. (formerly MindJolt and Social Gaming Network) is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

based in

Culver City, California Culver City is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 40,779. Founded in 1917 as a "whites only" sundown town, it is now an ethnically diverse city with what was called the "third-most ...

. The company was founded in 2010 by Chris DeWolfe, Colin Digiaro, Aber Whitcomb, and Josh Yguado. Jam City has nine studios located in the United States, Canada, South America, and Europe. As of 2021, it employs 825 people.

Netmarble Netmarble Corp. (Hangul, Korean: 넷마블 주식회사) is a South Korean mobile game developer. It is South Korea's largest mobile-gaming company which was founded in 2000 by Bang Jun-hyuk. Overview Netmarble developed ''Lineage 2 Revolution ...

is the largest shareholder in Jam City. As of 2021, Jam City's games have 31 million

monthly active users Active users is a measurement metric that is commonly used to measure the level of engagement for a particular product or object, by quantifying the number of active interactions from visitors within a relevant range of time (daily, weekly and m ...

and 1.3

billion Billion is a word for a large number, and it has two distinct definitions: *1,000,000,000, i.e. one thousand million, or (ten to the ninth power), as defined on the short scale. This is its only current meaning in English. * 1,000,000,000,000, i. ...

total downloads.

History

Jam City was founded by the Myspace co-founders Chris DeWolfe, Colin Digiaro and Aber Whitcomb, and former

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Disn ...

executive Josh Yguado. The company launched in 2010 when the co-founders raised from

Austin Ventures Austin Ventures (AV) is a private equity firm focused on venture capital and growth equity investments in business services and supply chain, financial services, new media, Internet, and information services companies nationally with a focus o ...

for their business, then called Platform G. Platform G acquired MindJolt, a social gaming platform founded by Richard Fields, in March 2010 and took its name. Fields remained with the company to lead strategy. The new MindJolt acquired Social Gaming Network (or SGN) and Hallpass Media in April 2011, which added

mobile game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone ( feature phone or smartphone), tablet, PDA to ...

s to the company's portfolio. MindJolt renamed as SGN in March 2012. In June 2013, SGN acquired Mob Science, a developer of social games known for ''Legends: Rise of a Hero''. The company launched the game ''Panda Pop'' in 2013, which would later become one of the highest-grossing mobile games. The match-3

puzzle game A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzl ...

''Cookie Jam'' launched in 2014. ''Cookie Jam'' was named

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's game of the year with more than 100 million downloads and 5 million active players at the time. ''Cookie Jam'' was also among the 20 highest-grossing mobile games for

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android operating sy ...

and the

App Store An App Store (or app marketplace) is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not include the running of the c ...

. In the wake of ''Cookie Jam''s success, the South Korean mobile game company

invested in SGN in July 2015, becoming SGN's largest shareholder; this was one of the largest investments in mobile gaming since 2013. By the time of Netmarble's investment, SGN games had been downloaded 500 million times. Following Netmarble's investment, SGN bought the developers Fat Rascal Games and Kiwi Inc. in late 2015, followed by

TinyCo TinyCo is a mobile video game studio and the creator of '' Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff'', '' Futurama Worlds of Tomorrow'', '' Marvel Avengers Academy'', ''Guess!'', ''Spellstorm'', ''Tiny Castle'', ''Tiny Monsters'', ''Tiny Village'', and '' ...

in July 2016. The latter acquisition raised SGN's staff count from 125 to 400. Mobile entertainment games that TinyCo had created include ''Family Guy: The Quest for Stuff'' and ''Marvel Avengers Academy''. SGN rebranded as Jam City in September 2016, the same year ''Genies & Gems'', a match-3 puzzle game, was launched. On April 25, 2018, Jam City released '' Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery'', a mobile game based on

J. K. Rowling Joanne Rowling ( "rolling"; born 31 July 1965), also known by her pen name J. K. Rowling, is a British author and philanthropist. She wrote ''Harry Potter'', a seven-volume children's fantasy series published from 1997 to 2007. The ser ...

Wizarding World The Wizarding World (previously known as J. K. Rowling's Wizarding World) is a fantasy media franchise and shared universe, shared fictional universe centred on the ''Harry Potter'' novel series by J. K. Rowling. A series of Film, films have b ...

franchise. Within its first day, the game was ranked first on the App Store's free-to-play category and reached tenth place on the list of top-grossing games across categories. It was the fastest of Jam City's games to reach $100 million in revenue, generating in its first year. By October 2019, it had been downloaded 54.6 million times. The game was nominated for Best Breakthrough Game during the 2019 Google Play Awards. Jam City bought the intellectual property, management, and development team of ''Bingo Pop'' from Uken Games in November 2018, expanding geographically into

Toronto, Canada Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Also in 2018, Jam City and

Disney The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...

reached a multi-year deal for Jam City to develop licensed games based on stories and characters from Disney and

Pixar Pixar Animation Studios (commonly known as Pixar () and stylized as P I X A R) is an American computer animation studio known for its critically and commercially successful computer animated feature films. It is based in Emeryville, Californ ...

. As part of that deal, Jam City took over the game ''Disney Emoji Blitz''. Jam City's first new game under its deal with Disney was ''Frozen Adventures'' based on the '' Frozen'' and '' Frozen 2'' films, which launched the next year. Jam City announced in January 2019 that it raised in funding from

JPMorgan Chase Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase Bank or often as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City, that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and fi ...

Bank of America Merrill Lynch BofA Securities, Inc., previously Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML), is an American multinational investment banking division under the auspices of Bank of America. It is not to be confused with Merrill, the stock brokerage and trading pla ...

, and others to support Jam City's acquisitions and global growth initiatives. Jam City acquired

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitu ...

-based studio 231 Play in April. DeWolfe told ''

GamesBeat ''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...

'' that the acquisition of studios in Toronto and Berlin allowed Jam City to expand into more game genres, such as

solitaire Solitaire is any tabletop game which one can play by oneself, usually with cards, but also with dominoes. The term "solitaire" is also used for single-player games of concentration and skill using a set layout tiles, pegs or stones. These game ...

mahjong Mahjong or mah-jongg (English pronunciation: ) is a tile-based game that was developed in the 19th century in China and has spread throughout the world since the early 20th century. It is commonly played by four players (with some three-pla ...

, and

bingo Bingo or B-I-N-G-O may refer to: Arts and entertainment Gaming * Bingo, a game using a printed card of numbers ** Bingo (British version), a game using a printed card of 15 numbers on three lines; most commonly played in the UK and Ireland ** Bi ...

. According to analytics provider Sensor Tower, solitaire, mahjong, and bingo games ranked among Jam City's top games as of February 2021. By mid-2020, Jam City's valuation was estimated at greater than . On May 20, 2021, Jam City announced it would become a

public company A public company is a company whose ownership is organized via shares of stock which are intended to be freely traded on a stock exchange or in over-the-counter markets. A public (publicly traded) company can be listed on a stock exchange ( ...

through a merger with DPCM Capital Inc., a

special-purpose acquisition company A special purpose acquisition company (SPAC; ), also known as a "blank check company", is a shell corporation listed on a stock exchange with the purpose of acquiring a private company, thus making it public without going through the traditional ...

. The merger valued Jam City at , including debt. The merger was expected to close later in 2021. Through the deal, Jam City was also acquire video game developer

Ludia Ludia is a video game developer based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada that creates and distributes cross-platform digital games with mass consumer appeal. Ludia produces original and branded properties based on game shows, television series, movies, ...

, the maker of games based on the ''

Jurassic World ''Jurassic World'' is a 2015 American science fiction action film directed by Colin Trevorrow, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, and Derek Connolly from a story by Jaffa and Silver. It is the first installment in the ...

'' franchise, for in September. In August 2022, Jam City

laid off A layoff or downsizing is the temporary suspension or permanent termination of employment of an employee or, more commonly, a group of employees (collective layoff) for business reasons, such as personnel management or downsizing (reducing the ...

150–200 people (17% of its headcount), primarily affecting Ludia.

Selected games

Most of the games Jam City produces are

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

and use

microtransaction Microtransactions, often abbreviated as mtx, are a business model where users can purchase virtual goods with micropayments. Microtransactions are often used in free-to-play games to provide a revenue source for the developers. While microtransa ...

s for players to obtain in-game items or abilities that speed up progression. Jam City's stated business goals include creating high-quality games that generate revenue for years. Jam City's games include both original and licensed

intellectual property Intellectual property (IP) is a category of property that includes intangible creations of the human intellect. There are many types of intellectual property, and some countries recognize more than others. The best-known types are patents, co ...

. In 2017, Jam City had 50 million

and it had seven games that have ranked in the 100 highest-grossing charts in the Apple App Store. The company had 31 million monthly active users and 1.3 billion total game downloads in 2021.

Products and collaborations

Jam City released a monetization tool, AdJolt, in November 2010. It was made available to third-party developers, who would share revenue generated through AdJolt with MindJolt. In December 2012, Jam City launched MasterKey, which enabled the company to develop

cross-platform In computing, cross-platform software (also called multi-platform software, platform-agnostic software, or platform-independent software) is computer software that is designed to work in several computing platforms. Some cross-platform software ...

games without creating separate versions for each platform. MasterKey was described as being technology that "essentially works like a translator or convertor". In December 2014, SGN and Chinese internet technology company

NetEase NetEase, Inc. () is a Chinese Internet technology company providing online services centered on content, community, communications, and commerce. The company was founded in 1997 by Ding Lei. NetEase develops and operates online PC and mobile gam ...

announced a partnership that enabled ''Cookie Jam'' to be distributed in China beginning in early 2015.

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.jamcity.com/ 2010 establishments in California Companies based in Culver City, California Mobile game companies American companies established in 2010 Video game companies established in 2010 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies