PlayerScale
| Company type | Private (before acquisition) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Gaming infrastructure, social gaming, e-commerce, online advertising |
| Founded | 2009 |
| Fate | Acquired by Yahoo! on May 23, 2013 |
| Headquarters | Belmont , United States |
Key people | Jesper Jensen (CEO), John Vifian (COO), Chris Benjaminsen (CPO), Oliver Pedersen (CTO) |
| Products | Player.IO |
Number of employees | 14 (2013) |
| Parent | Yahoo! (from 2013) |
PlayerScale, Inc. is a provider of gaming infrastructure headquartered in Belmont, California, focusing on social gaming, e-commerce, and online advertising. Established in 2009, the company’s flagship offering, Player.IO, facilitates the development and management of multiplayer games. By January 2013, the firm had a workforce of 14 employees.
On May 23, 2013, PlayerScale was acquired by Yahoo!, becoming an independent business unit within the larger organization. The executive leadership team comprised CEO Jesper Jensen, COO John Vifian, CPO Chris Benjaminsen, and CTO Oliver Pedersen. In April 2016, Games Platform Company ApS purchased Yahoo Games Backend Services from PlayerScale.
Player.IO
Player.IO, developed by PlayerScale, is a versatile online gaming infrastructure that supports multiple platforms including consoles, web browsers, PCs, Macs, and mobile devices. It reportedly caters to around 150 million users daily worldwide. The platform is compatible with various programming environments such as C++, Java, .NET, Objective-C, HTML5, Unity, Flash, iOS, and Android. It integrates features like payment processing, online chat functionality, analytics tools, virtual currency systems, distributed caching mechanisms, user authentication, social login capabilities, leaderboards, and localization support.
Everybody Edits
One prominent title built on Player.IO is Everybody Edits, a maze-based platform game initially released on the Flash game site Newgrounds. Within seven months of launch, it attracted approximately 250,000 registered players and generated around $10,000 in monthly revenue. The game was recognized for encouraging creativity among users and fostering a strong community despite its relatively simple design.
In 2019, Everybody Edits suffered two security breaches that compromised hundreds of thousands of users’ emails, usernames, IP addresses, and unencrypted passwords. The game was officially retired on December 31, 2020, coinciding with Adobe’s discontinuation of Flash Player support.