CrowdStar Promotes Happy Pets, Co. Launch

Social games developer CrowdStar, founded last year by Suren Markosian and Jeffrey Tseng, says its just-released Facebook title Happy Pets is nearing the one million active daily users threshold. Happy Pets, released last Thursday, is the company's second title and commences a release schedule that should see one new game released a month, the Dublin-based company says. CrowdStar is not only touting the launch of Happy Pets and its release schedule-business model, but also the fact that revenue comes only from direct payments, rather than ad offers, for virtual goods. The entire ad offer model has come in for criticism from a number of journalists and analysts, most notably Tech Crunch founder Michael Arrington. CrowdStar angel investor Peter Relan, also the company's Executive Chairman, said of the direct payment strategy: "We recognize that the entire value chain, including the way you actually build, deliver and manage games has also changed, and traditional development models aren't optimal for this new market…We believe we are building the most efficient, agile and profitable business model in the industry."

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