A free and legal online platform will soon be available to all fans of retro games. Just register on Piepacker, invite your friends, and start playing. No downloads, no subscriptions, completely hassle-free: open it on Chrome, and you are good to go. The multiplayer architecture is enhanced by a video chat function that also allows players to wear live 3D “masks” from their favorite titles. Gaming online is more fun than it has ever been, and some platforms can give you even more. Try a rizk bonus code if you want to be pleasantly surprised. As for the retro portfolio on Piepacker, there are already more than 60 games available on the platform, among them popular titles such as Worms: World Party (PlayStation), Earthworm Jim 1 & 2 (SEGA Genesis), Rage of the Dragons (Neo Geo), Glover (PlayStation) and Sensible Soccer (SEGA Genesis).

The initial group of publishers who have joined the initiative includes Team17, Piko Interactive, Codemasters, Morphcat Games, Bitmap Bureau, Megacat Studios, Dullahan Software, and Interplay. Lakhvir Takhar, Business Development Manager for Team17, reveals the ambition behind the project: “Piepacker has all the potential to become the Spotify of video games: there is finally a free and accessible platform, designed for online multiplayer”. Team 17’s classic “Worms” is celebrating its 30^th anniversary, so the partnership with Piepacker is a great way to bring together old and new players to have fun together.

A mix of the greatest titles of retro gaming, new indie, and exclusive games is what you can expect to enjoy on Piepacker. Benjamin Devienne, one of the co-founders, explains: “Our users will have many great, easily accessible games available at launch, thanks to partner publishers. Piepacker aims to be the platform to welcome indie creations along with the nostalgia of retro games.” Devienne founded Piepacker with his friend Jules Testard. In this couple of expatriated Frenchmen,  Devienne is the frontman. He founded the data science department of Gameloft, a French mobile game giant. Facebook snatched him from the video game industry to turn into the Head of Analytics of their data science department. After that, Twitch recruited him as Head of Research Strategy on machine-learning-oriented projects. Not bad for a kid younger than 30.

The two friends assembled a team of former employees of Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, EA, Blizzard-Activision, and Twitter. After just a few weeks of development, Y Combinator, the startup accelerator that has engineered the birth of Airbnb, Twitch, Dropbox, and even Reddit, decided to support Piepacker. The new platform has landed its first exclusives: Xeno Crisis, developed by Bitmap Bureau and Micro Mages by Morphcat Games, will be cloud gaming exclusive titles to Piepacker. Another classic, Sensible Soccer, will make a grand return enabling its fans to play online with friends.

The project is now launching on Kickstarter, with a campaign opening on April 20^th  and running until May 21st, 2021. The platform will be accessible to the public later this year, but registrations are already open.

Carl Williams

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