LinkedIn, the Microsoft-owned social platform, has made a name primarily as a platform for people looking to network and gain knowledge for professional and recruiting purposes, a business that now has more than one billion users. Now, to increase the time people spend on the platform, the company is venturing into a whole new area: gaming.
TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that LinkedIn is working on a new gaming experience. It will do so by riding the same wave of puzzle-mania that helped simple games like Wordle find viral success and millions of players. Three of the first efforts are games called “Queens,” “Inference,” and “Crossclimb.”
Application researchers have begun to find code that points to the work LinkedIn is doing. One of them, Nima Owji, said that an idea LinkedIn appears to be experimenting with involves having gamer scores organized by workplace, and companies being “ranked” based on those scores.
A LinkedIn spokesperson confirmed that it is working on games, but said there is no release date yet.
“We’re playing around with adding puzzle-based games within the LinkedIn experience to unlock some fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations,” the spokesperson said in a message to TechCrunch. “Stay tuned for more!”
The spokesperson added that the images shared by the researcher on X are not the latest versions.
(Update: Some updated images have already been provided, which we will incorporate below.)
Microsoft, the owner of LinkedIn, is a gaming giant. Its gaming business, which includes Xbox, Activision Blizzard and ZeniMax, generated $7.1 billion in revenue last quartersurpassing Windows revenue for the first time.
The LinkedIn spokesperson declined to say how and if Microsoft is involved in the LinkedIn gaming project.
Games are regularly among the most popular apps for mobile phones and PCs, both in terms of revenue and engagement, and casual puzzle-based games have been one of the most popular categories in the space among device users. mobiles. Non-gaming platforms have long taken advantage of these facts to increase their own traffic, possibly a trend that preceded the Internet, when you think about the popularity of crosswords and other puzzles in newspapers and magazines.
The New York Times, which acquired the viral hit Wordle in 2022He said late last year that millions of people continue to play the game, which is now part of a larger platform of puzzles and online games developed by the newspaper.
Others who have doubled down on gaming have seen mixed results. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, has been a major driver of social gaming over the years. But in 2022 close your standalone gaming app amid a decline in usage: it’s putting significantly more focus these days about mixed reality experiences and his business Meta Quest.
Over the years, LinkedIn has tested a number of different new features to boost how and how much people use its platform, and the strategy is arguably best described as: “how can we take the most popular tools that people are you using right now?” and make them relevant to the LinkedIn audience and focus on the world of work?
These have ranged from efforts in online education and professional development, to a publication and news operation, bringing more video tools and courting creators and influencers.