Cha-ching: Big Fish now has the top-grossing casino app worldwide

bigfishcasinosmall

Big Fish is cashing in on its casino app in big ways. The Seattle game maker, founded by former RealNetworks employee Paul Thelen in 2002, announced today that its multiplayer casino game “Big Fish Casino” is now the top-grossing iOS app as of March among all casino games worldwide. That’s according to data from AppAnnie Intelligence. The… Read More…

Game of the Year? Vote here in the GeekWire Awards

awards

The Seattle region may be known for operating systems, airplanes and coffee, but video games play a huge role in the technology scene, and today we’re pleased to present a new GeekWire Awards category that recognizes this important field. Below you’ll find the five finalists for Game of the Year — the top video games… Read More…

‘Dear Valve, Hire Me’: What happened to the woman who wrote that song

erinmichaelvondraksmall

Do you remember Erin Michael Vondrak? She really, really wanted to work at Valve. So much, in fact, that she wrote a song with an accompanying YouTube video, titled “Dear Valve: Hire Me” — her unique way of supplementing her application to work for the maker of Portal and Half-Life. It has been nearly two years since… Read More…

Big Fish touts 2 billion game downloads, reports $220 million in bookings last year

Paul Thelen

Big Fish currently sits atop the GeekWire 200 list, our ranking of the top privately-held companies in the region. And here’s a good reason why. The Seattle game maker, founded by former RealNetworks employee Paul Thelen in 2002, announced today that it has distributed more than two billion casual games to PCs and mobile devices… Read More…

Big Fish CEO Paul Thelen: ‘I’m an idea guy and that can be dangerous as a CEO’

Big Fish Games CEO Paul Thelen at Casual Connect

Big Fish founder Paul Thelen didn’t think he’d become a technology CEO. But after an illness brought his life into sharp focus, Thelen decided to quit his job at RealNetworks and start Big Fish. The 11-year-old company now employs 700, and is making a big push into mobile and cloud-based gaming. In 2011, it posted… Read More…

Big Fish teaming up with game-friendly Wikipad tablet

bigfish

This past summer, Big Fish Games co-founder Paul Thelen addressed the crowd at Casual Connect and talked about how his company’s leap into cloud-based gaming was the “future of games.” Today comes another move that could help Seattle-based Big Fish stay ahead of the pack. The company, ranked No. 1 on our GeekWire 200 Startup Leaderboard, will partner… Read More…

Tech Moves: aQuantive co-founder Galgon joins Real’s board; Madrona hires PR vet; Expedia changes; etc.

Mike Galgon

Rob Glaser continues to overhaul the board of directors at RealNetworks, today announcing that aQuantive co-founder Mike Galgon has joined as a director. ”Mike is one of the more accomplished technology entrepreneurs in Seattle’s history,” said Glaser in a press release. “We look forward to tapping into his deep understanding of digital media, advertising, and e-commerce… Read More…

Big Fish now a whale in mobile casino land, launches real-money gambling app in the UK

big fish 200

Seattle may not be Vegas (no offense, Tulalip Casino), but a new gaming app that allows players to use real money is bringing some more gaming attention this way. Big Fish has launched its first social mobile app in the UK called Big Fish Casino (formerly known as Card Ace: Casino) that will let players… Read More…

Podcast: What’s new in games, phones, Mac OS X and more

davidgeller

We’ve got a lot to talk about on this week’s GeekWire radio show and podcast, starting with our thoughts on the trends at this week’s Casual Connect video game conference in Seattle. The news from the show included the unveiling of a new $7.99/month game service from Seattle-based Big Fish Games — part of the trend… Read More…

Memo: Jeremy Lewis on his departure as Big Fish CEO

Jeremy Lewis

As we reported earlier today, Big Fish Games announced that its founder, Paul Thelen, would be returning to the role of CEO and president of the Seattle-based casual games company, replacing Jeremy Lewis in those roles. Lewis has been at the company for six years. He’ll remain on the company’s board of directors. The shift… Read More…