SkillPod Media Concludes Deal with Leading European Entertainment Network

South Africa, Centurion (PRWEB) October 1, 2009 -- RTL Nederland, part of the leading European entertainment network RTL Group, has launched a new online gaming platform Spelsalon.nl. The new site offers a wide choice of casual games, supplied by SkillPod Media (http://www.skillpodmedia.com) and supplemented with online games from a selection of third-party games developers. The number and variety of games is set to grow in the near future. "This deal increases SkillPod's reach into Europe and opens up opportunities for a number of deployments of our robust casual games platform with RTL Group across Europe", says Mark van Diggelen, CEO of SkillPod Media.

Arno Otto, Managing Director of Digital Media (RTL Nederland), commented that "the global gaming market seems to match the entertainment market in size. The demand for online gaming is growing exponentially. The combination of a strong market player like SkillPod Media with the entertainment value of RTL Spelsalon.nl creates a star in online games."

What does the deal encompass?

With the launch of Spelsalon.nl, RTL Nederland has implemented a custom SkillPod Games solution, which makes use of their XML (extensible mark-up language), API (application programming interface) and white-label engine. This approach allows RTL Nederland to integrate the data received via the XML feed into their proprietary content management system and thus display the content as per their website's design templates. "With this structure, future enhancements and new modules can be quickly and seamlessly integrated into the publisher's website, without having to fully redesign the layout to accommodate the new features", adds van Diggelen.

The features included

SkillPod has provided a number of custom solutions that contribute to the overall games offering for the Spelsalon.nl games portal. This includes the development of a secure solution for the logging and recording of high scores; for this purpose, API's have been developed and provided to a number of third-party game developers whose games are also being used on the portal.

The data query features include a list of games containing all relevant information such as images, flash path, description, help; a list of all games per category; a player profile listing, and all relevant information such as high scores, friends and messages; sending of messages; top most-played games; recently played games; favourite games; player transaction history; and search capabilities.

Why the hype?

This API has the advantage that it allows companies such as RTL Group to exercise full control over how the games display, what games display and how players can interact. The solution allows for single log-in functionality as well meaning that players can use a registered OpenID on a publisher's website with SkillPod being able to interface with that OpenID, allowing secure and seamless passing of player data, and enriching the user's experience. "We were looking for a flexible and high-spec games solution that could be adapted and tweaked to fit the requirements of our different group business units and that could be expanded upon in whichever territory it was launched; SkillPod has provided that." said Ian McClelland, Head of New Media, RTL Group.

Foot Note:

SkillPod Media (www.skillpodmedia.com) is a leading South African casual gaming solution provider, with clients that span across the globe. Their internal casual games site is www.skillpod.com and this site is a showcase of the multitude of gaming features on offer.

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