MySpace plans gaming push
News Corp digital head speaks
24 July 2009 11:53 GMT / By Duncan Geere
News Corp's latest plan to make MySpace into a go-to destination for web surfers is to turn it into a gaming platform, according to News Corp digital head Jonathan Miller.
Miller told the Fortune Brainstorm: TECH conference in Pasadena, California that he wanted to expand the site's video game platform and offer developers the ability to launch their products on the site and mine user data to develop better games.
"MySpace is and will be more in the future a gaming platform, a space for people to meet and play games", he said. Currently, a range of basic flash games are on offer, similar to Yahoo!'s games portal. "If you look at the big activities online, games right now is number three," he said. "Communications, search, games. So it's clearly going to be a major focus", he said.
However, News Corp sees an opportunity not just for MySpace: "None of the traditional media conglomerates are also significant video game players, so to speak, and I think that that's the missing piece of the equation, particularly when you see how much time is spent playing games online", said Miller.
MySpace was bought by News Corp in 2005 for $580 million, but has struggled in recent years against competition from the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
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