Gamezebo

History

Gamezebo was launched in 2005. It was founded by Joel Brodie, the former head of business development at Yahoo! Games. Brodie found that many video game publications "looked down" on casual games and started the website to review and cover news on the genre. It was billed as the first website which solely covered casual games.

Gamezebo and the Casual Games Association launched the Zeebys in 2007, which were awarded to casual games. Voting was open to members of the public. In 2008, it held another installment of the Zebbys which was aired on Lifetime, and was nominated for a Webby Award for 'Games-Related' websites. Gamezebo used RSS for its content feed. In 2009, Gamezebo expanded its scope with the growing popularity of social games such as FarmVille (2009). By February 2010, it had a staff and twenty freelance journalists. The website was redesigned in 2014.

In 2015, editor-in-chief Jim Squires told MacRumors that Gamezebo was struggling as larger mobile developers shifted away from traditional advertising. In March 2016, Gamezebo was acquired by casual game company iWin. It launched another redesign shortly after, improving navigation and expanding its coverage to PC games.

Content

An article in Games and Culture found that Gamezebo catered to a broader audience than other video game news sites. Unlike websites aimed at "core gamers" like Kotaku and TouchArcade, which also exclusively cover mobile games, Gamezebo did not marginalize mobile games in its coverage.

Organization

Gamezebo, Inc. is based in Walnut Creek, California. Its editor-in-chief is Jim Squires.

Notable contributors

• Justin McElroy, podcaster and co-founder of Polygon

References

References

1. (2024-11-04). "About".
2. Takahashi, Dean. (February 23, 2010). "As audiences shift to social games, so do game reviewers".
3. Saltzman, Marc. (February 28, 2006). "Casual games — good, clean, cheap fun online".
4. (January 12, 2007). "Voting Opens For Zeebys: First Annual Casual Game Awards".
5. (August 1, 2008). "Zeebys 2008".
6. [[International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences]]. (2008). "12th Annual Webby Awards Nominees". [[Webby Awards]].
7. E, Arnold. (April 2008). "Something for the RSSt of us".
8. Rossignol, Joe. (June 24, 2015). "App Store's Emphasis on Chart Positioning Squeezing Out Developers and Media Publications".
9. Weber, Rachel. (March 16, 2016). "iWin to acquire website Gamezebo".
10. Squires, Jim. (May 18, 2016). "Welcome to Your New Gamezebo".
11. (March 2019). "The End of Casual: Long Live Casual". [[Games and Culture]].
12. "Gamezebo Inc".
13. Webster, Andrew. (December 27, 2013). "Growing up gamer: should your child play classic games?".
14. "Justin McElroy".