Forge launches GameLink and PayLink to test the market for direct-to-consumer games

WroughtA marketing platform and community-oriented play commitment, announced Gamelink forge And Paylink today, a new way for game companies to engage directly with consumers.

Kun Gao, CEO of Forge, said in an interview with GamesBeat that new forge features are a bio link in organic studios and publishers. Based on the forge mission to empower game developers and promote direct connection with players, Gamelink offers a centralized center for any game to connect the purchase, the content, the community and launch a direct consumption experience in a few minutes.

Forge Paylink allows any game developer to bond from their purchase flow integrated to application and to transparently integrate the processing of payments, without disturbing the payment process.

In addition, games can present their sku directly on their gamelink. Gaming developers can use Paylink to increase their income up to 35% with only a few minutes of integration.

“In today’s fragmented digital landscape, it is essential that game developers have a direct presence for unified consumption,” said Gao. “Forge Gamelink provides this essential hub, connecting players to all the vital aspects of the ecosystem of a game in one place that is simple to manage and Paylink allows an easy mobile payment treatment that increases existing income from any game in a few minutes.”

Unlike traditional game websites that serve static destination pages, Forge Gamelink offers developers and publishers the possibility of creating a dynamic, customizable and easily managed bonding style. direct to the player.

In addition, games can say SKU directly on their gamelink forge to buy. Mobile games can be linked to their SKU via Paylink to provide transparently the existing Mor and alternative payment options in their existing integrated payment experience. By offering direct payment processing options, games can increase income and ensure increased retention thanks to loyalty, rewards and other incentives with the Forge platform.

Forge Gamelink puts community engagement to the next level by offering a powerful tool that rationalizes the way players discover and interact with their favorite games. This includes the possibility of creating a link to all popular social and community platforms, has directly game purchase options such as Steam, Showcase Game Trailes from YouTube, Create Faqs, Countdowns, etc.

“If you have this being executed on mobile, it seems just as good. And then for the payment fund, it works on a platform, but the payment challenges have been specifically on mobile. And therefore I think that the use case is much more designed for mobile,” said Gao.

Go directly to consumers

During the Conference of Gaming Developers in March, Forge launched Direct forge, giving game companies the opportunity to get started directly to consumers.

“Since then, some of the comments we have seen are that some of the games we are working with, in addition to having direct forge, they also use existing organic liaison tools to promote all the different places they have an audience, then they connect to their social,” said Gao.

Gao added: “When we looked at this experience, we thought it was quite basic and not really ideal for games. And so we got up to create a specially designed organic link, just for games.”

Epic Games recently was able to restore Fortnite on the Apple App Store, after 4.5 years of antitrust disputes. During a final decision before the Federal Court, Apple must now allow Epic to sell Fortnite on the App Store and also promote in its application that there are lower prices from the store on the Epic site.

Gao said: “The second part, which, I think, is even more appropriate, was the recent announcements and development around Epic and Apple games, and the decision to be able to let games generate payments apart from returning to the application.

Forge is on the web, but this new product is optimized by mobile, said Gao.

Forge Gamelink and Paylink are free. Games have the choice to go to the professional level, which unlocks the possibility of hosting Gamelink on their own field or sub-domain, access to additional analyzes and advanced personalization options.

Starting is fast and easy, and can be set up by the game teams in a few minutes This link.

Since its launch at the end of 2023, Forge has teamed up with hundreds of games, helping studios stimulate discovery, retention and engagement thanks to more than 25 million quests finished.

Now, with Forge Gamelink, Forge provides a centralized center for any game to connect the purchase, the content, the community and launch a direct experience to consumers in a few minutes.

Founded by the pioneer of the Dennis “Thresh” game Fong, the founder of Crunchyroll Kun Gao and the founder of Cyence George NG, originally from Forge as a project within GGWP, a game moderation platform fueled by the AI ​​that the team launched in 2020, to allow them to focus on the creation of incredible games.

The platform was launched at the end of 2023 with a round of seed financing of $ 11 million, co-directed by creators of creators, Bitkraft Ventures and Animoca Brands.

The biggest implications

Gamelink is an organic link that can be launched and can then lead the player to a game trailer, a list of wishes or a purchase on Steam. Or it can be linked to social platforms for the game. This content can be refreshed regularly. And there are analysis reports on which click on what.

“We are very excited by it. By going through forge gamelink, you can now start to build a direct experience to consumers, and which is extremely light and very easy to start,” said Gao. “You can put in a box so that users can put their emails. Finally, games can now have a direct contact point to these players, not only on other platforms, but have a direct messaging relationship with them.”

Gao said that it was a big problem that mobile games on iOS now have the possibility of having real payment for purchases outside the App Store.

“Previously, the App Store was the only way to do so. You couldn’t create a link with web shops before. You could not promote anything inside the application to go elsewhere outside the application. Now games have the opportunity to do what they want,” said Gao. “This is why we built Gamelink and Gamelink’s payment party to facilitate the process. It always offers developers a full suite of payment options.”

He added: “Once the user is on the remuneration link, the user has various payment options, we automatically detect what type of payment options available. And for example, you could have a new credit card, you could have a recorded credit card. And then, more importantly, for the Apple ecosystem, if it has already paid Apple.”

Savings for players

By choosing to buy something in an online store, a player can save perhaps up to 30%, because there are no more fees in Apple. But there would be 5% or less fees to the alternative payment provider.

Once the transaction is completed, the application can put the reader in the game. There are drawbacks if the players do not use the purchase in Apple’s application, Gao said. For example, if you do not use it, the developer does not obtain the benefit of payment payment to his list in the most profitable ranks for games. But for most independent games, Gao said it didn’t matter because they are probably in the Top 20. Gao said that forge was targeting independent game manufacturers.

“You should assess if it is worth the loss up to 35% of your income to stay in this list,” said Gao. “The trend is that games will have a much more direct control over their publication as well as direct control over paying treatment, as well as to have a much more direct relationship with players in the future. And we therefore build the tools to easily facilitate this process.”