For Immediate Release
MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA (U.S.)—September 26, 2008—Raptr, a social platform for people who like to play and discover games, went into public Beta release earlier this month. Incorporating both a web and desktop client, Raptr is a next generation software product that synthesizes the richness and power of a thin client application with the elegance and desirability of a well-crafted social network. Involution Studios was the original design partner on the Raptr product through its alpha stage, helping from initial product conceptualization through Raptr staffing its own internal interface design team.
“While it’s clear the design intention was to focus on gaming first, there are some areas where it appears Raptr could be the only online social service one needs,” wrote Frank Caron, Assistant Gaming Editor for ars technica, a leading critical publication about the technology industry. “Users are free to integrate Friendfeed and Twitter data with Raptr to create a more robust social presence on the site, and Raptr can automatically update the two respective services with your game-related activity. The addition of a fully public activity feed also adds a novel twist to the Facebook formula, as finding new friends is as easy as watching the public feed and seeing who’s doing what.”
Involution Studios was hand-picked by Raptr Founder and CEO Dennis Fong. Fong, a serial entrepreneur whose past successes include XFire, is also known as the “Michael Jordan of Gaming” for his dominance in the early days of professional gaming, including famously winning the Ferrari of John Carmack, co-founder of id Software and maker of Doom and Quake.
Originally engaged in the summer of 2007, Involution Studios helped Fong flesh out his initial product idea into a cohesive, cross-platform, interface architecture. From there, the Involution team worked closely with the core Raptr product and engineering teams to create and iterate an initial product offering. A private Alpha was released in early 2008 which was iterated on extensively, leading up to the eventual launch of the public Beta this week.
“Raptr is exactly the type of client and project we really excel at,” said Andrei Herasimchuk, a principal at Involution and the project lead who worked with Raptr. “We not only helped build an initial prototype, but helped iterate on all the various product ideas over and over to get the right design.”
In early 2008 Raptr closed their A funding round, led by Accel Partners and Founders Fund. The company currently has over 20 employees, and their headquarters is located in Mountain View, California.
About Involution Studios
Involution is a software services firm headquartered in Boston. We deploy small and experienced teams to create or redesign complex digital products. Our client list includes Apple, Microsoft, Oracle, McAfee, Shutterfly, PayPal, and Yahoo.
For more information please contact Dirk Knemeyer, dirk@goinvo.com or +1 408 387 3690.