The Startup Magazine Innovation in gaming platform, gamesGRABR interview with Tony Pearce

There is a new innovation in gaming platform gamesGRABR. gamesGRABR is a social network for gamers. GamesGRABR truly is an innovative platform that marries the power and usability of a contemporary ‘pinboard-style’ UI with instant play and buy capabilities. Not only does it act as a massive online catalogue of all things gaming, but it allows the user to curate their own collections, play and share them with gamers with similar interests.

gamesGRABR has universal appeal aiming at hard core and casual gamers. Everyone from the casual Facebook player to the most ardent console fan will discover games content and gamers relevant to their interests. They in turn can bring new content into the site from anywhere on the web using our unique ‘GRAB’ button, increasing the relevance and community with every click.

gamesGRABR is unique because it takes the concept of a social network and brings it together with the largest entertainment niche market in the world ‘gaming’. It allows gamers to connect to each other about the very things they love about games. This universal appeal, the ability to play and buy instantly, all wrapped in striking user experience, makes gamesGRABR the most exciting new e-commerce and digital platform around.

gamesGRABR is an evolution of TeePee Games. A games discovery engine that was created to allow people to find Facebook and online games, discover what their friends were playing and get personalised recommendations.

On the 4th of February gamesGRABR launched their public beta, after 4 months of solid development and 3 months of brainstorming so in total it’s been about in development for 6 months. The team behind gamesGRABR has well over 100years combined experience in gaming, online and mobile businesses. The team includes; former CEO of SEGA Europe Nick Alexander and former THQ marketing guru Simon Jones.

Tony Pearce, founder of GamesGRABR comes from a 20 year background in the entertainment and gaming industry. Over the past 10 years Tony has raised over £15m in VC funding, started 4 companies and had 2 successful exits. Previously to gamesGRABR he founded a games company called TeePee Games, a consumer portal that allows players to discover and play games across social networks and the web.

Tony got into mobile gaming 12 years ago and started a mobile games company called Player X which he spearheaded from a two person start-up and developed it into Europe’s largest mobile games distributor. The company was named by Library House as the fourth fastest growing VC backed company in the UK before it was acquired by Spanish mobile content company ZED in April 2009.

Tony has a love of start ups and continually has new, innovative ideas, but he always focuses on working out what is missing in the market and what can be done to make it better. Tony adds “Once you have the idea always believe you will be the biggest and best. My aim is to make gamesGRABR the largest games e-commerce and discovery site in the world”.

When asked what has been the biggest challenge so far at GamesGRABR, Tony answered “Being first to market and pushing development boundaries. We have some amazing new tech launching in gamesGRABR soon including a new GRAB button that uses Semantic Bookmarklet Technology – its super clever!”

In the coming year gamesGRABR aims to get 1m users and make gamesGRABR the largest online space to discover great games and gaming products, whilst meeting new friends and showcasing your games collections.

Finally, Tony Pearce’s piece of advice to budding entrepreneurs was: “Never lose faith, but do your research before putting your house on the line”.