Mousebreaker

Mousebreaker is a UK casual gaming website founded in 2001 by Richard Pendry and Alick Stott. 
One of the earliest browser game portals, the site earned a reputation for sports and topical games."A sick game to play". The Guardian. May 13, 2009."City boys get come uppance with Spank the Banker". Mediaweek. October 13, 2008."Sir Fred Goodwin ‘Fat Cat Cash Back’ Game". The Telegraph. March 27, 2009. It tends to feature games that follow the "easy to play, difficult to master" model, have short load-times and "a cheeky sense of humor"."Game Developers" - Mousebreaker (2009 archive)
The site was amongst the biggest UK Flash gaming websites by 2008, with over 4.5 million unique users per month."IPC Media Acquires Market Leading Online Games Site, www.mousebreaker.com". Time Warner. June 24, 2008.
==History==
Pendry and Stott began working on Flash games as a hobby in 2000. Their first projects were a simple penalty shootout game and a pool game that would be the basis of the Blast Billiards franchise. Upon licensing both games, the pair realized the potential of their hobby, but it wasn’t until 2003 that Mousebreaker was popular enough for them to work on the site full-time."Interview with Richard Pendry". Casualgaming.biz. January 14, 2009.
IPC Media purchased Mousebreaker in 2008 for a rumored seven figure sum. The move saw Mousebreaker become part of their Ignite division, aimed predominantly at the 18-24 male demographic and was home to magazines such as Loaded and NME."IPC buys Mousebreaker site to inject new life into division" Mediaweek. June 24, 2008.
Mousebreaker announced a partnership with CobraMobile in 2009 to bring their titles to the iPhone and iPod Touch."Cobra bringing Mousebreaker Flash games to iPhone". Pocket Gamer. November 18, 2009. The first game, Blast Billiards Touch, was released that December.
In 2016, Mousebreaker was sold to Spil Games."Spil Games acquires male-oriented browser game portal Mousebreaker". pocketgamer.biz. May 12, 2016.
===Best-known titles===
Many of Mousebreaker’s early popular titles gained enough of a following to earn their own websites, including Blast Billiards, Flash Cricket, Camper Strike, Play A Pal and Play For Your Club. The Sports Heads series is one of their most played on-site titles.
In 2009 Pendry noted that Jumpers for Goalposts – a football lifestyle sim – had gained a loyal following. Sequels were released in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013. Darts Party and Top Spinner Cricket proved popular as well."Flash Game Challenge: Top Spinner". Tech Digest. January 9, 2009.
Finally, Rock Band Sim – which attempted to combine rhythm action gameplay with the management sim genre – received positive write-ups on casual game sites."Rock Band Sim Review". Jayisgames. May 8, 2009.
==Jiggmin==
After Uber Breakout and Uber Breakout II were published on Mousebreaker and proved popular, Jiggmin announced he became "pseudo employed" by the site in March 2006 to make games for them."MINES". Brackenwood. March 1, 2006."“Mines” is released on Mousebreaker.com". March 13, 2006.
Mines was the first, with Jiggmin saying to expect to see "a lot more games". Despite this Uber Pool was the only other game to come out of the deal before he moved on to other projects.
He did however enter Rolley-Ball in the site's "Flash game development" competition at the end of the year, where it tied for 3rd place."Mousebreaker Flash Game Development Competition". October 4, 2006."Mousebreaker Game Development Competition 2006 - Winners announced!". December 11, 2006."Rolley-ball". Jiggmin. December 12, 2006.
==References==
Category:Websites