MLG Acquires Gameplay Data Firm Agora Games

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MLG Acquires Gameplay Data Firm Agora Games

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Professional video game league Major League Gaming (MLG) has acquired Agora Games, a game tech company that powers the publisher-owned online communities for games like Guitar Hero and Call of Duty. Agora Games will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of MLG. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though MLG (SEO: 066570) CEO Matt Bromberg told me that the entire Agora Games team, including President Mike DelPrete, would be joining as full-time employees.

MLG has grown through acquisitions; it bought console tournament site GameBattles.com in 2006, and competitive gaming news site GotFrag.com in 2007. This new deal signals the company’s first push into the business of gameplay data—or automatically pulling in stats like how long someone plays a game for, the achievements they earn, and potentially which in-game ads they’ve seen. Competitors in this space include Raptr, GamerDNA, and newcomer GameGround, which recently raised $4 million in funding from Sequoia.

Bromberg said Agora Games’ reach made it an attractive target, since the N.Y.-based company’s tech was currently tracking stats for over 25 million gamers. The goal is to bundle the gameplay data from Agora Games with stats from MLG’s existing community, in a way that makes MLG’s core offering more attractive to both players and advertisers.

Meanwhile, Agora Games’ client roster includes publishers like Activision, THQ and Konami; the company will still be able to service them apart from MLG, though Bromberg said the standalone business would likely only increase MLG’s revenues by 10 percent. MLG is backed by over $42 million in funding from investors including Oak Investment Partners and Ritchie Capital; Bromberg said the company was on track to break even this year.

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