A golden opportunity? Cie Games takes Racing Rivals to Android

Once upon a time, Android game launches were no big deal. But as mobile monetization improves upon the huge Android installed base, we may soon consider Android game launches to be a blockbuster moment.

With that in mind, Cie Games is launching its Racing Rivals mobile racing game on Google Play today. The Android version of the free-to-play game comes on the heels of an iOS version that has been the top-grossing racing game for months.

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To view this from another perspective, CSR Racing has been a huge hit for NaturalMotion for a long time. And Zynga paid $527 million to buy NaturalMotion in January.

Long Beach, Calif.-based Cie Games said that Racing Rivals has seen more than 5 million downloads on iOS, and it ranks as the top-grossing racing game in more than 50 markets.

“After our tremendous success as the first racing game to provide real-time synchronous head-to-head and team-based challenges on iOS, we are thrilled to be able to deliver the most requested ‘feature’ from our extensive and loyal community — an Android version,” said Matt Nutt, the general manager of Cie Games, in a statement. “We believe the massively multiplayer online game design approach we’ve taken with Racing Rivals and strong community management have been a key to our success in being top grossing in the racing genre for mobile.”

Players who download the Android version will be able to race — and bet pink slips — against rivals on iOS. The game has more than 60 cars from brands like BMW or Honda.

Cie Games has more than 70 million installs for its Car Town and Cartown Streets games on Facebook, and it has 10 million installs for those games on iOS. The company was founded in 2001 and has 40 employees. Aside from CSR Racing, Racing Rivals competes with Electronic Arts’ Real Racing 3.