Tech Impact Awards 2012: Games

PopCap Games
2401 Fourth Ave., Seattle
Employees: 400
popcap.com

The Seattle-based creative leader in casual games is still tops in this market sector that has grown to an estimated $6 billion to $8 billion a year. PopCap Games maintains that position largely through the popularity of its flagship puzzle game, Bejeweled, selling a copy of the classic and updated versions every 4.3 seconds. Along with other games such as Zuma and Plants vs. Zombies, PopCaps addictive pastimes have consumed more than 7 billion leisure-time hours since the companys inception in 2000. Founded by three computer game enthusiasts, John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, PopCap was sold to Electronic Arts last year for $1.3 billion, but maintains its development offices in downtown Seattle, where it continues to expand its presence into Facebook and tablet computers.

Silver Award
Big Fish Games
333 Elliott Ave. W, Seattle
Number of employees: 500
bigfishgames.com

From its initial founding in 2002 by former RealNetworks executive Paul Thelen, Big Fish Games has grown to become the leading marketplace for casual games, where more than 500 development partners sell and distribute in excess of 2,500 games for desktop computers and more than 100 games for mobile devices. That expansion is likely to continue with the firms move into cloud-based games that stream to PCs, Macs and tablets over the internet.

Silver Award
Zipline Games
7683 SE 27th St., Mercer Island
Number of employees: 16
ziplinegames.com

The speedy name is apt for Zipline Games, the seed-stage company founded in 2010 by CEO Todd Hooper and game veteran Patrick Meehan. Their open-source Moai mobile game development platform boasts use by 10,000 developers, including those from Bungie, Hairbrained Schemes and Ziplines own studio to rapidly create social and mobile games that have been played by more than 5 million users.