MocoSpace acquires location-based mobile game platform Geocade

Mobile game maker MocoSpace, has acquired Geocade, a location-based mobile game platform, the company announced today.

The deal shows that MocoSpace wants to take its web-based mobile apps to the next level by imbuing them with location-based elements. Geocade’s location-based social game platform is used in games that have been downloaded more than 30 million times.

As part of the deal, Geocade founder and chief executive Jim Caralis will join MocoSpace as vice president of MocoSpace’s HTML5 game platform.

MocoSpace makes games that can run on a variety of platforms because they run in web browsers. They are not native apps developed for specific platforms. They use HTML5, the new lingua franca web format, which can be used to create games that don’t require fast interaction.

Caralis will oversee the development of the game platform and its features. MocoSpace’s latest in-house game, Rise to Fame, which launches this week, will use Geocade’s location features and will be MocoSpace’s first-ever location-aware HTML5 game. In that game, players become actors vying for stardom and trying out different roles by visiting new locations.

MocoSpace already has more than 22 million registered users playing more than 1 million hours of game play per day in MocoSpace’s 20 HTML5 games. Geocade will eventually be merged with MocoSpace’s platform.

Justin Siegel, CEO of MocoSpace, said the acquisition furthers the company’s aggressive push into mobile social gaming.

MocoSpace was founded in 2005 and is backed by General Catalyst and Softbank Capital.