When most of us think about video games, we usually imagine a single person sitting in front of a screen, controller in hand, alone for hours on end. Sure, they might interact with other people through a headset, but for the most part we don’t consider gaming to be a social experience. Even social gaming usually only occurs between a group of existing friends.
One company is looking to change all of that by bringing gamers face to face in the real world.
French-based Gamersband has raised a $500,000 Series A round of funding led by Petit Poucet, which traditionally funds student projects, and has invested in student-run companies, such as Leaf Supply, Monsav.com and Easy Life Pack. The site, a social network designed to help gamers find other locals to play with, launched in September.
Still in beta, Gamersband already boasts around 4,000 testers, largely because the current beta version allows any interested person to sign up or sign in with Facebook or Twitter.
The service allows users to create a zone of challenge that will be seen by other local players. Players can be found by the zone and connect with the first user. Alternatively, users can create tournaments which can then be tied to maps locations. Locations include buildings, streets, schools, workplaces or cities, which means you can create a tournament and challenge everyone in your building or town.
Users can even show off their prowess with medals. These items, similar to the badges that users can earn on location-based discovery app Foursquare, are tied to rankings based on a location. They do not, however, require a sign-in at the location like Foursquare or Facebook Places do. Awards can be held for arriving first or last, as well as for winning or losing a certain number of games.
This geo-location service is joined by the ability to sort users by console and game, which is important if you actually want to play together. This is because the online services of games will not cross-connect between two different types of consoles.
