Tapulous Investor Jeff Clavier On Casual Gaming "Explosion"
Last week, the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) acquired Tapulous Inc., a game company whose first home was Palo Alto, Calif.-based SoftTech VC, a seed-stage venture firm headed by noted angel investor Jeff Clavier. Tapulous is behind the popular Tap Tap music games for the iPhone and other devices in a fast-growing and lucrative area known as casual, or social, gaming.
So how did Tapulous go from obscurity to gaming poster child in less than three years? We recently chatted with Clavier, an active investor in gaming companies, to get a better read on this emerging area. Here’s an edited excerpt of that interview:
Q: The casual gaming space is very lively and interesting these days. What is your assessment of this market?
A: We’re seeing an explosion of social games on Facebook and on Apple (AAPL) distribution platforms. Suddenly, games are the premium place for people to interact. What’s really fascinating with this new wave of social games is the wide footprint they’ve built, in terms of gamers.
