Kongregate announces public beta for new online storefront

Kongregate’s online storefront, Kartridge, will see a public beta launching to anyone who wants to sign up on November 1.

As part of the public beta launch, people who sign up to the platform will be rewarded with ‘tangible perks’ based on achievements linked to play time. Gathering achievements and experience, players of the prerequisite levels will be rewarded with elements like discounts or entire games for free.

Titles available at launch number over 200, with 100 ‘founding developers’ contributing to the platform. Said devs include the likes of Double Fine, Versus Evil, and Thunder Lotus. The store will be backed by elements like global chat for players, and robust dev tools behind the scenes to expedite the upload process and provide solid analytics.

Alison Huffman, director of product at Kongregate, said: “We want Kartridge to feel like an investment that pays off for both developers and players. Developers will gain a bigger and expanded audience through purchases subsidized by Kongregate and players will get more of what they want: games.

“We hope Kartridge accounts will become a point of pride for players, with a lot of completed achievements, a large library, and a place where community investment, health, and longevity are encouraged.”

Kongregate has been running since 2006, initially as a spot for flash game creators to make a bit of ad revenue, moving into mobile in 2013, and now the move to the more traditional PC-based indie market.

Kartridge was first announced earlier in 2018, with the temptation-inducing offer to developers signing up to the platform: of your first $10,000 (£7,600) earnings, they won’t take a penny. With the hundred-plus devs and publishers on board for the public beta, it seems the offer has indeed tempted plenty on board.

The launch of the new store comes after a bullish 2017 for Kongregate, with the company picking up Synapse Games in October, as well as announcing a $10 million (£7.6m) funding drive aimed at indie developers in August.