Vivendi (EPA: VIV) Games Mobile announced that its original episodic mobile game franchise Surviving High School—a story-driven simulation game set in a typical high school—had 7.5 million episodes downloaded in 2007, making it one of its most successful original IP games in mobile. It’s important to note that figure is for episodes downloaded, not mobile games. Plus, those are combined figures for the original mobile game Surviving High School, released in 2005, and the sequel Surviving High School ‘07, rolled out last year. Still, as Pocketgamer.co.uk notes it’s quite an achievement for an original IP mobile game, as most of the hit mobile games are based on branded titles—such as Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? These games might be popular with users, but game developers pay heavily to license the brand, impacting profits. What’s especially interesting is that Vivendi puts the success of the game down to “Web 2.0 campaigns and viral marketing initiatives,” which included a MySpace profile and a competition for fans to be included in the game, and now has its own fan-created Surviving High School group on Facebook. Surviving High School became part of the Vivendi stable after its 2006 purchase of the game’s original developer San Mateo-based Centerscore (release).

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