play140

Play140, founded in 2010 by Shawn Broderick, Andrea Shubert, and Tom Monaghan, was a social gaming startup that developed text-based games. The founding team brought together a combined 50 years of experience in the software and gaming markets. This venture marked Shawn Broderick's second foray into the online games industry, following his earlier company, Genetic Anomalies.

The company's core offering consisted of simple, interactive games designed to be played across a variety of platforms using 140 characters or less. This model allowed users to engage with games through SMS, Twitter, instant messaging, web browsers, and even set-top boxes. The business strategy focused on avoiding the highly competitive and capital-intensive market of complex, Flash-based games, instead targeting a niche for accessible, multi-platform text-based entertainment. This approach was designed to circumvent the 'hits business' dynamic prevalent in the broader gaming industry.

Headquartered in Lexington, MA, the company operated as a private entity within the vertical market software industry. Play140 secured $500,000 in funding from investors including the Bangalore-based Ojas Venture Partners and SOSV. The company was later acquired by Oomba.

Keywords: text-based games, social gaming, mobile gaming, SMS games, Twitter games, cross-platform gaming, Ojas Venture Partners, SOSV, Shawn Broderick, Tom Monaghan, Andrea Shubert, Oomba, Genetic Anomalies, casual games, interactive games