Japanese social gaming firm Gloops has moved to extend its partnership with Manchester United after topping more than 1.4m downloads of its official Manchester United game – European Club team Soccer Best Eleven Plus.
The app was launched a year ago when the two businesses first collaborated and allows fans to assume the role of manager in pursuit of Premier League glory.
It’s the second major news announcement about football manger games announced today – earlier this morning we revealed how the Preston-based independent studio behind the online multiplayer football management game SoccerManager.com has received a £300,000 investment from a leading tech investor.
In a statement on the club website, Manchester United’s group managing director, Richard Arnold said: “We are delighted that gloops have decided to extend their relationship with us for another year, and demonstrates that having a partnership with Manchester United yields impressive returns.
“gloops have produced an extremely popular product, with almost half of our four million followers in Japan downloading its Manchester United branded game, which is impressive given the short period in which it has been available.
“They are at the forefront of the development of social gaming in Japan and we believe they can continue to help the Club deepen our engagement with our fans there.”
As part of the partnership, gloops have also undertaken a Manchester United Soccer Schools programme and have worked with the Manchester United Foundation over the course of the last 12 months.
It’s memorable but non-descriptive name is taken from a ‘g’ which comes from global and ‘loops’ implies ‘to loop communication.’ The company says “gloops represents our vision: to broaden the circle of communication services globally.”
