Alexis Bonte, who today announced a 550,000 euro angel investor round of funding for eRepublik, has a unique reversed-entry strategy for his online strategy game.
Players in eRepublik collaborate to develop their own countries. Described as a Massive Online Social Strategy Game, all citizens (active users) are real people who interact with each other as politicians, entrepreneurs, soldiers and journalists to establish organizations, companies and affect politics. Time is accelerated, with one year online year passing for each real world week.
Over time, the political map of eRepublik resembles less and less the real world. Sweden, Spain, Indonesia, Romania and Italy are nowadays the first five powers. One unrealistic development: France invaded another country (Though it was only Switzerland).
Although still only in private beta, 19,000 users from 43 countries log on for an average of 15 minutes each day to play.
What is the reverse strategy of the game’s business model?
Alexis and his team decided to build the game WITHOUT a graphic interface until the concept has been proven. Rather than take the classic approach for a new game - invest millions upfront before launching - Alexis and his team decided to take a beta approach and build on a proven concept. (See eRepublik video here)
This round of investment - intended to finance the public version of the site - goes towards proving the strength of this novel approach.
Congratulations, Alexis!
Online gamers might be amused by this posting I did on World of Warcraft invades Hello Kitty
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