Russian mobile game developer Playtox, which has more than 45 million players in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, has launched its adventure game World of Shadows in the U.S. in the HTML5 format.
Above: Playtox’s World of Shadows
HTML5 is the lingua franca of the web, but it has been a controversial format in games because it can run slow and with limited features in a pure native implementation. But more developers are launching such titles to take advantage of the cross-platform nature of the browser neutral format.
Playtox makes free-to-play browser games. World of Shadows is the second massively multiplayer online game in the HTML5 format that the company has released. Before that, the company released its casual MMO mobile game My Farm. That game has millions of players. Playtox hopes to become a leader in HTML5 games that reach a worldwide audience.
World of Shadows is like a classic PC role-playing game, except you can play it on a mobile device.
Playtox was founded in Novosibirsk, Russia, and it has raised $3 million. It first launched World of Shadows three years ago, and the game already has more than 21 million players. About 10 percent of the players pay for in-game goods, and the average revenue per paying user is $23. That’s a huge achievement for a free-to-play game.
“World of Shadows was inspired by our team of self-proclaimed gamers, and has all the classic elements of what should be in a role-player game, including a creative and unique storyline,” said Artem Zinoviev, CEO of Playtox. “As a result, we have been able to keep active users for a year to a year and half on average. We look forward to seeing this success translate to U.S. gamers as well.”
In World of Shadows, you can play the fantasy title as a Mage, Warrior, or Monk. The game has more than 500 quests, more than 1800 outfits, 21 dungeons and 200 creatures available to players.