Kongregate Announces Digital Download Service Kartridge

Kongregate, the primarily free to play publisher, is launching a digital download service on PC they call Kartridge.

The service focuses on all kinds of games and different payment models, promising to be a developer-focused platform with no listing fees and stronger control over the design and content of store pages. 

“Playing on Kartridge will immerse
gamers in a deeply social world; they’ll earn rewards for playing their
favorite games, collect customized achievements, and connect with other
gamers through chat, forums, and additional social features,” Kongregate says. “They’ll share tips and strategies within newfound communities as they level up their accounts,
earning rewards along the way.  The Kartridge platform was designed
to be a unique and robust experience for players to enjoy, with the end goal of
making the platform as fun as the games people are playing.”

The more interesting things about Kartridge are some of the biggest criticisms of Steam: curation and surfacing. “Through a combination of editorial
curation and algorithm-focused game surfacing, our goal is to show the right
game to the right player at the right time. This approach will help surface
titles that are getting lost in other marketplaces and will help players find
new content they didn’t know they’d love.”

Players can sign up for the beta for Kartridge now right here.

Our Take
It will be interesting to see how Kartridge does, as things like editorial curation and better surfacing have been aspects people have been asking of other services for some time.