Keesing Media Group acquires casual games developer CoolGames | Pocket Gamer.biz

Keesing Media Group, the world leader in “Braintainment” has acquired casual puzzle game developer CoolGames.

Keesing Media Group is a specialist in puzzle games and what they call “braintainment”, while CoolGames specialises in casual titles brought to a variety of platforms via HTML5. Keesing themselves are primarily in the avenue of traditional media, such as puzzle books, and this acquisition – indicated to take immediate effect – will likely give them major inroads into the digital gaming market as we know it.

CEO of Keesing Media Group, Philip Alberdingk Thijmm, commented on the deal, “The acquisition of CoolGames is a further step in putting our digital ambitions into practice. CoolGames’ platform partners will benefit from Keesing’s vast content databases and deep knowledge about good puzzles. Additionally, our current B2B media clients will be able to offer a much broader selection of both puzzles and casual games to their own clients.”

Founder of CoolGames, Laurens Rutten added, “By teaming up with Keesing, we can now bring our existing titles to players in Keesings client base of international media companies. And we also see a growing popularity of good word-games and other engaging puzzle-types in the entire games market. With Keesing’s expertise in puzzles and our know-how of both single-player and social casual games for various platforms, we expect to develop successful new IP in the coming years.”

Picking your brains(tainment)

The acquisition of CoolGames by Keesing Media Group is yet another example of a traditional media organisation investing into the gaming market. This move will give them inroads into the casual gaming market, although it’s not yet clear if CoolGames will break from their publishing format on HTML5 to full-fledged original titles.

It’s also, unsurprisingly, not the first big move we’ve seen around puzzles and educational content in mobile. Outside of the puzzle game genre companies such as Outfit7 have invested in startups such as Hopalai, while NetDragon spun-off their highly successful education business into its own entity amidst slower performance on their mobile side.

If indeed CoolGames does stick to HTML5 and avenues outside of traditional app stores, it certainly wouldn’t be a bad choice. As the company has already demonstrated their commitment and belief in the potential of different means of producing and distributing their games, as co-founder Laurens Rutten told us in an interview from 2020.