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PlayFirst's Top 5 for '08 - PlayFirst Grapevine

PlayPass Subscriber
2008
DEC
3
by John

2008 was a huge year for PlayFirst, and as I reflect on what we've accomplished I thought I'd take a moment to share the top five things I'm most proud of with you:

#5: Our 4th Anniversary
As a young company, every anniversary is a big one. We turned four in April, having completed another year of solid growth in games, site members, employees and revenue. It was a great time to reflect on our pride in this company we've built, our accomplishments to date, and also our intimidation and excitement over the size and complexity of the to-do list still before us.

#4: PlayFirst wins a Fast 50 "Rising Star" award
In October, PlayFirst was honored as a "Rising Star" of Silicon Valley on Deloitte's prestigious “Fast 50” list. Being named a Rising Star was fantastic validation of our success in building not only great products but a great company. The award ceremony was a fun night out for ten "old timers" whose hard work over many years led to this success, and it was icing on the cake of a great year for PlayFirst.

#3: The release of Parking Dash™ and Cooking Dash™
Our beloved Flo™ makes several appearances in Fitness Dash and has her first headlining role outside of a Diner Dash® game in Cooking Dash. These were important games for the DinerTown™ franchise and we had to get them right—make them not just great to look at, but truly fun to play. Thanks to our outside development partners, our inside design staff, and our loyal FirstPeek game critics, Cooking Dash instantly became a #1 best seller on PlayFirst.com as well as on our partner sites like MSN, AOL and Yahoo! Games, and Fitness Dash, still in its PlayFirst.com exclusive window, held the #1 spot for several weeks.

#2: PlayFirst.com v5 & PlayPass™
Things started to really kick into gear in June with the beta launch of PlayFirst.com version 5.0. The massive site re-design was finally out the door—which was when we started getting a lot of feedback on a bunch of different issues. Much of the feedback was positive, but we realized we just weren't quite done. Not to fear, though—that's what a beta release is for! We put our heads back down and by the end of summer had completed the re-re-design of 5.0. We then took a five minute break, downed a few Diet Cokes, and then went straight into work on the PlayPass, which the team designed and launched soup-to-nuts in less than three months.

#1: Winning 3 Zeebys
We were completely blown away to win not one but THREE 2008 Zeebies for the top award in each of three genres: Best Time Management Game (Diner Dash®: Hometown Hero™), Best Hidden Object & Adventure Game (Dream Chronicles®), and Best Strategy Game (Chocolatier®). With talented developers releasing over 500 games each year, nothing is more fulfilling than having your fans tell you that your games are the best. Thanks go to the internal PlayFirst studio for Diner Dash: Hometown Hero, to our friends at Katana Games for Dream Chronicles, and to the boys at Big Splash for Chocolatier .

Thanks goes to all of you as well, for loving our games and site and for all of your great feedback over this past year. None of PlayFirst's greatest moments could have happened without you.

Comments

congratulations and a well deserved one. we all love your games here in the plattsburgh, new york area. would love to see a picture of the playfirst gang and the man behind the voice who lets one know their time is up. your games are on sale at our local Best Buy and Walmart store. Diner Dash is great--most of us have done waitess work and boy canwe relate. God Bless and may 2009 be even better--HAPPY NEW YEARS.

by goldiaplayer (joined Feb 26, 2008)
posted Dec 29, 2008 10:31:27 AM
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Congrats Playfirst ! Thanks for giving us really cool games !

by nga2007 (joined Jun 30, 2007)
posted Dec 27, 2008 8:48:41 AM
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Congratulation ... again, PlayFirst, Inc!!!
Your Cooking Dash has won another award "Best Time Management Game of 2008" from Yahoo! Games.
Chocolatier 2 also appeared in "Best Overall Casual Game" and "Best Strategy Game" category :)

by buzzworthy (joined Sep 25, 2007)
posted Dec 25, 2008 8:10:20 PM
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Congratulations Playfirst ! You certainly deserve all the accolades that have been bestowed upon your site. Keep up the good work.

by roseyo (joined Aug 25, 2008)
posted Dec 19, 2008 5:58:08 AM
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I really really wanna see a PlayFirst version 2009: Bigger, Better and Stronger.
Also, truly love ya 3 Zeeby-winner games.
Things I'm expecting from PlayFirst are:
- The Last and the Most Brilliant Installment of Dream series: Dream Chronicles 3: The Chosen Child.
- Another Charming Version of Diner Dash: Not-Hometown-Hero :)
Have a Good Holiday!

by buzzworthy (joined Sep 25, 2007)
posted Dec 6, 2008 8:57:15 PM
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You rock Playfirst!! I can tell because you have great games coming out every day. Congrats on your success after four years!!!! It went very well. I bet you will achieve many more members and awards of having the best graphic, kinds of games,and much much more!!
sussy65
posted Dec 5, 2008 3:39 PM

by sussy65 (joined Nov 16, 2008)
posted Dec 5, 2008 3:39:42 PM
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Congratulations Playfirst on 4 fantastic years and all of your wonderful accomplishments. I know you will have many more in the years to come. :)

by Kel3369 (joined Aug 9, 2007)
posted Dec 3, 2008 10:12:58 PM
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