Fuel Powered adds competitive multiplayer to mobile games

Fuel Powered says it’s making a good living by providing multiplayer, tournaments, and live-event management for mobile games. The latest proof is that it’s teamed up with Codemasters to turn the mobile racer F1 Race Stars into a multiplayer-capable game.

Players can now race each other in and engage in tournaments. The big benefit of adding these social features is that the game become much more engaging, and retention goes up. And with increased retention comes better monetization.

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The San Francisco-based Fuel Powered said that games that use its platform have grown from 10 million users to 75 million users in seven months. Its customers include Sega, TabTale, and Codemasters.

With Fuel Compete, a multiplayer and live events engine, F1 Race Stars’ players have been able to challenge each other and their friends to compete and play in tournaments, where they win in-game prizes and rare items. The competitive nature of multiplayer has had a substantial impact on the game’s key metrics. The seven-day retention, or the percentage of players coming back after a week, increased an average of 280 percent for F1 Race Stars gamers who played multiplayer.

“I’m thrilled to be working with Codemasters, who on console and mobile continue to deliver some of the best racing experiences in games,” says Mik Naayem, the founder and chief executive of Fuel Powered, in a statement. “By deeply partnering with Codemasters to integrate and improve a multiplayer mode for F1 Race Stars, we were able to create an experience that players are passionate about which provides a catalyst for driving increased engagement and retention; therefore, boosting the player’s long term value.”

Fuel said that players who participate in a multiplayer match are much more engaged with the game. Those players have 9 percent more days played per week and their 7-day retention goes up 5 percent to 20 percent. Additionally, in a test case study in a game with over 5 million monthly active users, Fuel found that multiplayer had a direct correlation with a 24 percent increase in revenue.

This increases the amount of time a player plays a game and sticks with it, increasing overall player lifetime value.

Others have discovered this as well. Rivals include NextPeer, Gamesparks, and Playfab.

Fuel has brought aboard Volker Hirsch, the former chief strategy officer of Scoreloop (acquired by Research in Motion in 2011) as an adviser.

“Fuel Powered is delivering on one of the key elements of a successful Live Operations strategy for mobile games.” said Hirsch, who is currently the founder of Blue Beck. “It makes me proud to see a company continuing the vision and innovation of Scoreloop in this critical area of mobile games and I am pleased to help them reach their full market potential.”

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Fuel has 20 employees and was founded in 2012. It has raised $6 million to date, including a $3.5 million round in September 2014. Investors include Middle East Venture Partners, the Rising Tide Fund, Daniel Hechter, and Jacques Berrerbi.

Fuel was originally started as Grantoo in 2012. Grantoo made games for students and allowed them to compete to win tuition grants. When Grantoo pivoted to providing multiplayer experiences for mobile game developers in 2014, it rebranded itself to Fuel.