Play Hard aims to tap into casual online gaming
As chief executive of Westwood videogame company Turbine Inc., Jeffrey Anderson helped turn the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien into a popular online game. Now Anderson's launching a new gaming venture that'll cater to a different kind of fantasy - the athletic kind.
Anderson, who stepped down as Turbine's chief executive in October, is launching Play Hard Sports Inc., a Foxborough company that plans to create an online haven for sports game fans. Bolstered by $5 million in funding from venture capital firm New Enterprise Associates, Play Hard will offer easy-to-play "casual" sports games for desktop computers.
"I think it's a great thing to have this started here, the best sports city in America," said Anderson. Play Hard will run fantasy sports leagues and offer news feeds about events in the real world of sports. But its main feature will be online sports simulations that combine the simplicity of casual games with the deeper character development of online games like Turbine's The Lord of the Rings Online.
While many computer games have complex rules and take hours to play, casual games are simple and brief. The games are popular with home computer users, and many people play them at work during lunch breaks or at idle moments. Available through popular gaming sites such as Pogo.com and MSNGames.com, casual games have become big business. The Casual Games Association, an industry trade group, predicts that people will spend $2.25 billion worldwide on such games this year.
Play Hard plans to offer games free at a website that will launch in the fall. The site will be supported by advertisements, but Anderson plans to offer an ad-free version to users who pay an undetermined subscription fee.
The company will begin by offering a football simulation game, with plans to eventually add baseball, basketball, and other sports. Players will be able to create their own teams and pit them against other gamers via the Internet. "I can go online, find people of similar skills and abilities, and play them immediately," said Anderson.
Anderson may have picked the perfect time to offer an online football game. Earlier this month, Electronic Arts Inc., the leading maker of sports games, announced it would no longer sell a version of its hugely popular football game Madden NFL for desktop computers. "That changes the dynamic and the landscape dramatically," said Anderson. "It leaves a very big vacuum."
Play Hard plans to keep gamers coming back by letting them add customized characters to their teams. The more the gamer plays, the better these "franchise players" will become. For instance, a wide receiver will break more tackles or a quarterback will become a more accurate passer. Anderson borrowed the idea from online multiplayer games like Lord of the Rings Online and World of Warcraft, where frequent playing causes characters to "level up" and become more powerful. This encourages players to play more frequently, and helps build up a community of loyal gamers.
David Cole, analyst with DFC Intelligence in San Diego, said Anderson won't find it easy to establish his new venture. "It's a tough business, and there's a lot of people doing it," said Cole. The most successful sites, like Pogo, offer hundreds of games, and Cole was skeptical that a company offering just a handful of sports games could attract enough visitors.
Anderson was far more confident. Indeed, he said his eagerness to launch a casual sports gaming service is one reason he left Turbine. "I'd just become really excited about how wide this market is," he said. "I have been working on sword-and-sorcery fantasy products for a very long time. . . . I was excited about doing something new."
Hiawatha Bray can be reached at bray@globe.com.
