PlayGiga

PlayGiga, established in Madrid in 2013, was a technology company operating in the cloud gaming sector. The firm was founded by Juan Gili and Cesar Valencia. Gili brought extensive experience from his 25-year tenure at Telefonica, which facilitated early partnerships with telecommunication companies. Valencia's background includes over two decades in the gaming industry, notably as a creative director and senior producer at Pyro Studios. Together, they aimed to address the high costs associated with premium video gaming by providing a 'Netflix-style' subscription service.

The company's business model centered on a white-label B2B strategy, partnering with telecommunications and media companies to offer a Games-as-a-Service (GaaS) platform to their existing subscriber bases. This approach allowed partners like TIM in Italy and Turner in Latin America to launch their own branded cloud gaming services, such as TIM Games and GLOUD, powered by PlayGiga's technology. Revenue was generated through a sharing model between PlayGiga, its B2B partners, and game publishers. The service enabled end-users to stream a curated catalog of premium video games on PCs, Macs, and TVs for a monthly fee, eliminating the need for expensive consoles or high-end computer hardware.

PlayGiga's core offering was its proprietary virtualization and cloud gaming technology, engineered for low latency and reduced operational expenditure. This platform supported a catalog of over 300 titles from major publishers like Warner Bros., Disney, and SEGA. A significant milestone was the company's collaboration with Intel to leverage new processors as a cost-effective alternative to traditional graphics cards, enhancing scalability for mass-market game streaming. After raising approximately $5.51 million in funding from investors including Adara Ventures, Caixa Capital Risc, and Inveready, the company achieved a major exit. In December 2019, Facebook (now Meta Platforms) acquired PlayGiga for an estimated €70 million ($78 million), integrating the team and its technology into the Facebook Gaming division to further its mission in cloud gaming.

Keywords: PlayGiga, cloud gaming, Games-as-a-Service, GaaS, video game streaming, B2B gaming platform, virtualization technology, low-latency streaming, subscription gaming, Juan Gili, Cesar Valencia, Facebook Gaming, Meta acquisition, TIM Games, GLOUD, Turner, Adara Ventures, Inveready, Caixa Capital Risc, game streaming technology, white-label gaming