OgameBlog

Karlsruhe-based company as a “Great Place to Work” award

Karlsruhe, 25 February 2010. Gameforge, the largest independent provider of online games, according to one of the benchmark study “Germany’s best employer 2010″ Great Place to Work ® Institute’s 100 best employers in the country.

The award as top employer was passed by the Great Place to Work ® Institute Germany in the presence of Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs Ursula von der Leyen during a major gala took place last night in Berlin, and certifies to the Karlsruhe-based company once again a special appeal as an employer. Recently, Gameforge was through the nationwide comparison and cross-industry businesses TOP JOB has been awarded as one of the top 100 German SMEs.

Gameforge in the study was his commitment and his achievements in creating a quality workplace culture impressively demonstrated. The company shows responsibility for the staff and a great vision for the importance of trusting relationships between staff and management for business success.

“The joy and pride in this latest award motivates us to pursue this avenue in Personnel consistently. We see the result as an invitation to collectively continue to ensure that Gameforge continue to be a ‘Great Place to Work’ remains, “says Klaas Kersting, CEO and founder of Gameforge.

The extensive employee survey on key issues such as workplace culture and business success, participation and cultural change, lifelong learning, balance between work and life, pay and benefits took place anonymously. The investigation was conducted in Germany in addition to 14 other European countries. More information about Benchmark Studies of the Great Place to Work ® Institute is on the Internet at www.greatplacetowork.de

About the Great Place to Work ® Institute Great Place to Work ® is a founded in 1991 and internationally networked research and consulting firm headquartered in the United States. Basis of the work is an empirically grounded model that encompasses the key aspects of an excellent staff from the perspective of the employer. The focus is on the relationship between management and employees, the relationship of employees to their own operations and the company as a whole and the relationships among colleagues. Employers are the key characteristics of excellent credibility, respect and fairness of management, as well as the pride and team spirit among employees. Supported on this basis and advises the Great Place to Work ® Institute enterprises in the systematic creation of a high-quality, attractive workplace culture and is currently identified in over 40 countries worldwide regularly Best Employer lists.

The German Great Place to Work ® Institute carried out annually since 2002, the benchmark study, “Germany’s Best Employers” and through since 2006 “Best Workplaces”. The institute also offers individual consulting and training events.Legal representative of the Great Place to Work ® Institute Germany is the GPW Germany GmbH based in Cologne.

More Info: www.greatplacetowork.de

About Gameforge:

Gameforge is the largest independent provider of online games. The Karlsruhe-based company offers 18 games in 50 languages, including Metin2, the largest massively multiplayer online game in Europe. Also in Gameforge portfolio are well-known games like OGame, Ikariam, Guild 1400, or 4Story Gladiatus. The Gameforge MMOGAME.COM portal integrates all Gameforge games in a comprehensive community network. Gameforge has received numerous awards including the ‘Technology Pioneer 2009′ by the World Economic Forum and the ‘Entrepreneur of the Year 2008′. Ikariam won the German Game of 2009 award in the category ‘Best Browser Game’. The German Developer Award 1400 guild chose the best German browser game 2009th 2010 Gameforge the ‘TOP JOB was named Employer of the Year’. In addition, the Great Place to Work ® Institute Germany awarded Gameforge out as one of the best employers 2010th

Source: gameforge.de

Startup partners with market leader for online games, gives 85 million players free access to virtual goods

Berlin, 20 August 2009: Just a short time after its market launch, SponsorPay GmbH’s innovative payment system is already reaching millions of online gamers around the world. Gamers are thrilled by the opportunity to receive virtual goods and items for free by accepting an offer from one of SponsorPays 1,000 advertising partners. And the industry is swiftly embracing the Berlin-based company’s ground-breaking approach: SponsorPay proudly presents its newest client, Gameforge, the biggest publisher of browser and client-based MMOGs worldwide.

Free access to online content that usually has to be paid for. This is made possible with the new payment method provided by Berlin-based SponsorPay GmbH. “Instead of paying with real euros a player can now complete one of our advertising offers to purchase, for instance, a virtual item for a computer game”, comments Jan Beckers, Managing Director and co-founder
of SponsorPay. “In return, he’ll receive the virtual good for free.”

But not only gamers benefit from the new system. For publishers of online games, it works as an effective tool to raise revenues and increase their reach. Previously many players did not access premium content, being unwilling to pay for it. The possibility to receive it for free increases the games attractiveness and player activity. And the game publisher is paid a commission by the advertiser for each completed offer and thereby receives his real euros.

These arguments now have convinced one of the most important companies of the digital entertainment industry as well. “Our new customer Gameforge is one of the leading independent providers of browser and client-based online games”, Jan Beckers comments. “This cooperation means a boost in reach for our advertising partners in Europe who now have access to an additional 85 million registered users.” And Klaas Kersting, Managing Director of Gameforge, is sure to have entered a successful cooperation with SponsorPay: “As we are pursuing a long-term growth strategy, which is based on high consumer satisfaction, we are putting a high value on the transparency of advertising offers. With SponsorPay, we are happy to have found a partner who shares our philosophy completely and already serves a large portion of our markets in Europe.”