Santa Monica company PaeDae launches its new prize network for online and mobile game developers today. The best way to describe how the network works is: “It’s like a white-labeled version of Kiip, but it also includes virtual rewards too.”
So this means that, like Kiip, gamers are rewarded for successful game play and are given offers for items when they complete certain gaming tasks — like getting an offer for an item from beachmint.com (an early adopter of the platform) for successfully completing a game level.
Also like Kiip, PaeDae subscribes to the concept that if rewards are given during a time of personal success (like after completing a game level) that a positive association with the reward item is more likely. This seems logical enough, but apparently there is some research out there to corroborate this.
However, unlike Kiip, PaeDae has chosen to white-label their offering so that the offers are not tied to any 3rd party, but rather appear to come from the offering brand itself — an interesting approach.
Additionally, PaeDae’s network is different from Kiip in that it can offer both real-world AND virtual items. They are denoting these two methods of prize delivery as the “withPrizes” network for real items and the “withUsers” network for virtual items. Virtual items could include points in other games or even free downloads of a game title.
I’m not sure those are the most intuitive network names, but I suppose all that matters is that developers know how to incorporate the experience into their games and apps. According to the press release “PaeDae’s software development kit (SDK) is customizable to the look and feel of the game and integrates into the development pipeline within minutes for a frictionless, one-time install.”
One last way that PaeDae is different from Kiip is that rather than being founded by a 19-year-old wunderkind like Brian Wong, PaeDae was conceived by a more seasoned set of entrepreneurs including Rob Emrich, Sam Goldberg and Sam Kim.
Still, because Kiip came out with this concept first, if PaeDae catches on, they will probably always be referred to as “you know, that one company…the white-label version of Kiip.”
I think they are probably ok with that though.
UPDATE:
Kiip reached out to me to let me know that “Kiip does in fact offer both real-world and virtual items. Kiip in the last couple months has offered anything from additional characters in games to bonus items and virtual game currency.”