If Covid-19 had never existed, Piepacker would surely be a 100% American start-up by now.
The path of this streaming platform specializing in retro video games seemed ready: founded in early 2020 in the United States by French expatriates in Silicon Valley, Piepacker quickly integrated the famous start-up accelerator Y Combinator, from which came companies like Airbnb, Stripe, Coinbase, Doordash or Instacart.
Y Combinator owns 7% of Piepacker.
But the pandemic has put its two cents in. Faced with uncertainties about the management of the health crisis in the United States, its founders Benjamin Devienne and Jules Testard have decided to confine themselves to France, while continuing to build their start-up remotely. It had to be temporary. A year later, the founders have no intention of returning to California.
“
We took a risk by giving up the American ecosystem.
But coming back to France was a project that I had at heart
”, explains to
Figaro
Benjamin Devienne, who worked for nearly ten years in the San Francisco bay for Gameloft, Facebook, then Twitch.
Piepacker has attracted in its wake other French people who have "relocated", such as its marketing director, Thomas Moreau, former marketing director in New York for the video game publisher Activision-Blizzard.
Piepacker currently employs 30 people, 20 of whom live in France.
All are teleworking full time.
3 million euros already raised, 10 to come
The ecosystem supporting French start-ups convinced the founders of Piepacker to stay in the country. Kima Ventures (Xavier Niel's background), Serena Capital and the Française des Jeux, the Rothschild family and the Public Investment Bank have injected nearly one million euros into the young company. To this must be added $ 2.1 million from the international venture capital fund Makers Fund, specializing in video games. “
We will soon complete another round with European investors. It will be greater than 10 million euros,
”adds Benjamin Devienne.
Piepacker specializes in cloud gaming (video game streaming), but its offering has little to do with that of a Google Stadia or an Xbox Game Pass.
It is the general public counterpart and free of charge.
Read also: Game Pass: Microsoft's "Video Game Netflix" will arrive on a myriad of connected screens
Launched in beta version last week, Piepacker allows you to play, without prior download, and from a web browser, about sixty video games dating back more than 20 years (the
Worms
saga
,
Earthworm Jim 2, Sensible Soccer
...) or recent games using the aesthetics of the 80s and 90s (
Micro Mages
, released in 2019). Piepacker has signed licensing deals with publishers like Interplay, Codemasters and Team 17, who see it as a way to combat piracy of their old hits.
This “retrogaming Netflix” adds a distinctive functionality.
By sharing a simple link, the player can invite other friends to join their game in one click: Piepacker is able to transform a retro game that can be played by several people in front of the same TV into a game that can be played together online.
All of them can simultaneously video chat, webcams on, and add filters (called 3D masks here) to their faces.
What to add a friendly dimension to the online game.
“
When I worked at Facebook, I saw the immense success of video filters
,” notes Benjamin Dedienne.
Features designed for Twitch
The catalog will be enriched from the fall of a collection of independent titles, with an emphasis on casual and board games. “
We want games that are accessible to all and that play well together
,” continues Benjamin Devienne. The publishers and creators of these titles will be able to remunerate themselves via optional in-app purchases, on which the start-up will take a commission, or by the sale of 3D masks bearing the image of their game. These filters will be marketed between 0.99 and 4.99 euros each, again with a commission for Piepacker.
The platform wants to offer some new games.
For example, she is working on a title which, like Nintendo's video game workshop, will allow you to create 2D video game levels yourself.
"
You will be able to build and share your creations with your friends, but also to broadcast them on Twitch
", indicates the founder of the start-up.
Piepacker has forged partnerships - which will be unveiled later - with major brands and licenses.
Players will be able to purchase these expansions to build levels that will take place in these universes.
Read also: Nintendo launches the Video Game Workshop to develop its own games
Finally, Piepacker will integrate paid features designed for Twitch. The public will be able to vote to affect in real time the price of a game broadcast on the platform, "a bit like Twitch plays Pokemon", underlines Benjamin Devienne. A spectator can also buy a virtual object that the streamer needs to progress (a potion, a spell ...), or take his controller to find himself propelled into the current game - and then appear on the screen in the company of his favorite influencer. These features will be shown at the end of the month during a live "
where four Twitch stars will play our original game Arsene Lupine: Gentleman Bomber
", inspired by the famous
Bomberman,
continues the co-founder.
Thanks to a Kickstarter campaign and a closed beta, Piepacker has managed to attract 200,000 users to date, 48% of whom are women. The start-up is targeting one million users by December. “
Our goal is to become the leading social video game platform on the Internet browser, particularly in emerging markets,
” says Benjamin Devienne. The start-up, which is still a company incorporated under American law, has among its advisers Kenji Matsubara, former president of Sega, and Tom Bollish, co-founder of social game publisher Zynga (
Farmville
).
