iOS Game Developer Tapulous Acquired by Disney

[MacRumors]

TechCrunch reports that Palo Alto-based iOS development firm Tapulous has been acquired by Disney. Tapulous, the company beyond the popular Tap Tap Revenge series of rhythm tapping applications, was reported last December to have a staff of 20 employees and be bringing in nearly a million dollars per month in sales.

Tapulous has been acquired by Disney. The iPhone gaming startup with several hits on its hands was founded by Bart Decrem, who will join Disney as a VP. COO Andrew Lacy is also joining Disney as a VP. Disney is very interested in social and mobile gaming, having recently invested in Playdom's $33 million round.

Long an App Store staple on the iPhone, Tapulous moved onto the iPad earlier this year with the release of Tap Tap Radiation.

The acquisition is notable not only as an example of small development firms being able to see significant enough success to appeal to major media players, but also for Disney's connection to Apple CEO Steve Jobs, who is the company's largest individual shareholder.

Article Link: iOS Game Developer Tapulous Acquired by Disney

 

[tigres]

Didn't these gents start out in Cydia?

 

[kolax]

Crazy to think how quick that's happened. They owe a lot to El Jobso.. maybe buy him a drink at the next Disney meeting?

 

[Axl Rose]

damn only twenty employees and raking in million a month, there probably set then kudos, fun games.

 

[Compile 'em all]

Not a fan of the company and their style of development (tens of Tap Tap Tap [insert band name here] apps) but good for them. Success stories like that always give hope to other indie devs out there.

 

[Diode]

Didn't these gents start out in Cydia?

I believe so - before there was an official app store.

 

[talkingfuture]

This is very interesting, especially considering Steve Jobs' position at Disney.

 

[Consultant]

Wow. congrats to Tapulous.

Maybe Steve really likes the game?

 

[zombitronic]

Maybe now they'll have the resources to make a different type of game.

 

[irwcll94]

Not a fan of the company and their style of development (tens of Tap Tap Tap [insert band name here] apps) but good for them. Success stories like that always give hope to other indie devs out there.

Thats interesting. All your companies apps are (for the most part) complete copies of other apps. You have even posted several of the almost exact same apps under different names. I'm not a fan of your style of development.

 

[Westside guy]

Uh oh, mark my words...

Tap Tap Revolution - Disney Princess' Edition

Tap Tap Revenge... of Jafar

Tap Tap Toy Story III

 

[jklps]

Nobody has a "Tap Tap Jonas Brothers Revenge" or "Tap Tap Miley Cyrus Revenge" joke to make?

 

[Chaos123x]

They came along way from creating games for jailbroken 2g iPhones.

 

[stridemat]

Nobody has a "Tap Tap Jonas Brothers Revenge" or "Tap Tap Miley Cyrus Revenge" joke to make?

I would Tap Tap Miley Cyrus

*edit* as this seems to be causing some offence to some members I would like to clarify that I am within the UK, where she is over the legal age of consent.

 

[8CoreWhore]

Wow. Good for them. I hope they toss some of that green at the employees.

 

[ChazUK]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.6; en-gb; Dell Streak Build/Donut) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1)

That is good for them! Nice to see that the app store brings oppertunities like this.

 

[-=XX=-Nephilim]

Being INDEPENDENT as in "indie" is bloody privilege - at least in my books that is

By selling yourself you are anything but independent - in fact, more of a puppet really...

What is so "good for them" is beyond me - but hey, what do I know or indeed care

 

[DavidLeblond]

Being INDEPENDENT as in "indie" is bloody privilege - at least in my books that is

By selling yourself you are anything but independent - in fact, more of a puppet really...

What is so "good for them" is beyond me - but hey, what do I know or indeed care

Everyone deserves to get paid for their hard work. Why is that a bad thing?

 

[jklps]

Being INDEPENDENT as in "indie" is bloody privilege - at least in my books that is

By selling yourself you are anything but independent - in fact, more of a puppet really...

What is so "good for them" is beyond me - but hey, what do I know or indeed care

Yes but the guy who started it can take the money, work for Disney for awhile, learn some stuff..then leave and be independent again, but more financially secure.

 

[dissdnt]

Why? No offense but there games are terrible. I never got it. They play an mp3 and you tap. It's not even like guitar hero where at least the music screws up if you do.. it just playsssssssssss. Ah boo.

 

[antster94]

Wow props to them!

Anyone else remember the days of unlocking the 2G? Can't even remember the name of the program used, however there was Tap Tap Revolution. That was the original of the series, good on them getting this far!

 

[macduke]

I would Tap Tap Miley Cyrus

You're in luck! Their next release is appropriately titled Tap Tap Pedophile!*

*Exclusively for stridemat, who apparently has a sickness

 

[CFreymarc]

Being INDEPENDENT as in "indie" is bloody privilege - at least in my books that is

By selling yourself you are anything but independent - in fact, more of a puppet really...

What is so "good for them" is beyond me - but hey, what do I know or indeed care

It is called having a good house and providing well for a family or a soon to be girlfriend now wife. A lot of those guys are sure to get married in the next year or so.

There are too much talent out there pounding Linux kernal code for nothing in coffee shops getting nothing in return. I'm glad this payout happened. A few will stay on, others will move on and others will just pay off their parents mortgages.

 

[nednarm]

ahh i remember the good old days back in version 1 where tap tap revolution was available through installer.

Who else remembers iPhysics? that game was pretty sweet at the time.

 

[Jeremy1026]

Being INDEPENDENT as in "indie" is bloody privilege - at least in my books that is

By selling yourself you are anything but independent - in fact, more of a puppet really...

What is so "good for them" is beyond me - but hey, what do I know or indeed care

Good for them because they just made $33,000,000, more than you and I will likely make in a lifetime.