Kongregate Launches Arcade App For Android

Flash gaming portal Kongregate has launched a new, free app for Android called Kongregate Arcade. The app acts as a portal, taking a user to a library of over 300 Kongregate games that have been carefully ported and tweaked for play on Android devices. Kongregate plans to update the app with more games every week. The app even lets users pick out favorite games and download up roughly half of them for offline play, a feature probably intended for users who have limited data plans.

Kongregate’s Web offering is a gathering place for Flash games, where developers can choose to add virtual goods or simply let users tip them with the site’s virtual currency, Kongregate Kreds. Kongregate adds achievements to popular games and an interface that runs along the side of each game, letting users chat with each other and rate the game. Developers are actively participating in Kongregate Arcade, altering their own games to support touchscreen controls and optimizing the graphics display. Kongregate partnered with Adobe to work on porting its Flash games for Android last year.

Kongregate Arcade is meant to compliment Kongregate’s mobile site, which offers the Web versions of games for all smartphones that can run Flash in a mobile browser. Running Kongregate Arcade will only be possible on Android handsets updated to at least version 2.2, nicknamed Froyo, updated for Flash version 10.1. The mobile app offers some of the same features as the site, such as the ability to rate games, create user profiles, earn achievements, and leave comments.

Kongregate may issue apps for other Flash-friendly OSes like WebOS and Windows Phone 7. An iPhone version is unlikely, but Kongregate Arcade is already compatible with upcoming tablet devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. Right now Kongregate Arcade intends to monetize primarily through advertising. Kongregate works with a total of 8500 developers and its Website serves around 13 million users.  Kongregate was acquired last year by GameStop, which intends to promote the Kongregate Arcade app through its 4600 retail locations nationwide.

[via Develop]

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