Nostra goes global with mobile game discovery platform on smartphone lockscreens
18.10.2023 - 15:35
/ venturebeat.com
Nostra is launching its disruptive mobile game discovery platform around the globe and it will make it available to game developers worldwide.
Nostra, based in San Francisco and Singapore, has become a huge game discovery platform in Asia, with more than 90 million monthly active users and 25 million livestream viewers, particularly in India and Southeast Asia. It helps players discover, play, watch, and compete across games. And it does so by making games available on lockscreens via Glance. And it also facilitates livestreaming.
Now, it is expanding globally and opening its platform to game developers and studios worldwide, aiming to unlock the full potential of their games and drive organic engagement at scale.
“We are an independent unit inside Glance, and we very much act as an independent unit with its own mission. Our vision is to be a community-led gaming platform that meets the gaming needs of every user,” said Yashashvi Takallapalli, vice president and general manager of Nostra, in an interview with GamesBeat. “Our belief is that every user is a gamer. It’s just a matter of putting the right game in front of that user. So that’s the first proposition — a game for every user and a user for every game.”
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He added, “The second aspect is we also are talking about every gaming need of a user. So when it comes to gaming, increasingly, it is becoming very mainstream. Now, gaming is all just about playing games, talking to your friends about those games that you played, finding updates on those games you want to research.”
Right now, there are about 500 games on Nostra. Most of them are low-bandwidth HTML5 games, with some Android titles. Over the next 12 to 18 months, the company plans to rapidly expand its Android games portfolio. Puzzle games and match-3 titles are very popular, as are hypercasual games. Nostra is working with about 30 game studios now, many of them in Asia.
You can casually get engaged with a game on your lockscreen, or you can swipe and get the game up. If you’re playing Scrabble, you’ll see an opponent make a turn and get a prompt to make your move. Over time, Nostra wants to launch on browsers, game folders, homescreens and more. Nostra is also in the process of building its own app.
Nostra has welcomed Voodoo SAS, the French video game developer behind popular casual games, to its platform. Voodoo will deliver immersive gaming experiences on smartphone lock screens and other smart surfaces.
This collaboration allows Voodoo to tap into Nostra’s massive user base, particularly