The real-world location-based game SCVNGR is going global with the help of the Google Places application programming interface. Google Ventures has also dug up a second round of funding for the mobile game. Opening itself to a worldwide audience could give SCVNGR an edge over similar outfits like Foursquare and Gowalla.
SCVNGR, a Boston-based company that offers a mobile real-world game of the same name, announced on Tuesday that it's going global.
SCVNGR's a social game based on geo-location that lets players link up with friends on Facebook and Twitter.
The game's simple -- players check in to different spots, such as stores and public places, complete challenges and earn points. They get real-world rewards such as discounts on purchases.
In order to take its game world-wide, SCVNGR needed new technologies, so it enlisted the help of the Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) Places API. In addition, Google Ventures led a consortium to raise a second round of funding worth US$4 million for SCVNGR earlier this year.
Neither SCVNGR nor Google responded to requests for comment by press time.
SCVNGR's Guts
The SCVNGR game is location-based. It uses global positioning systems (GPS) and databases of destinations to automatically serve up players' locations.
Previously, SCVNGR reportedly used geolocation services from Mixer Labs' GeoAPI, but that was focused on companies in the United States.
SCVNGR switched over to Google Places in order to go global.
Players create and complete challenges tied to their locations. They get points for completing their challenges, which they can redeem at about 12,000 locations for real products and gifts or discounts. They can also complete and build challenges.
SCVNGR's default interface is in English, but content can be added in any language.
A free app for the iPhone and Android phones was released Tuesday with SCVNGR 3.5.
SCVNGR 3.5 has a new dashboard layout. It lets players comment on friends' activities in real-time or give them an extra point for doing something. The "Social Map" feature lets players geolocate their friends. SCVNGR 3.5 has a new activity, Stream, which groups activities into visits to show players where their friends are and what they are doing.
The Power of Mobile Marketing
For a fee, enterprises and organizations get their locations placed in the game. SCVNGR's website claims about 1,000 companies and organizations in 20 countries have signed on as customers. They include Princeton University and the Smithsonian Institute. Another is Journeys, which markets to teenagers.
SCVNGR isn't alone in offering location-based services. Twitter added geolocation to its services and is offering up ads in the Tweet stream; Foursquare and Gowalla have been letting consumers track friends' whereabouts and earn rewards for going to brick-and-mortar businesses for some time.
However, SCVNGR's possibly the only one that's going worldwide. One of the markets in which it plans to have a presence is China, although its ties with Google might hinder rather than help it there given the strained relations between China and Google.
"It might be very challenging for them to go into China, but hopefully they have a plan," Laura DiDio, principal at ITIC, told TechNewsWorld. "Still, we don't know if there's anything in China right now that rivals SCVNGR."
SCVNGR has raised about $5 million in all, with a consortium led by Google Ventures kicking in about $4 million in the second round in January.
Marketing Is a Dicey Business
However, competition may impede SCVNGR's potential as a marketing tool.
"Games like this could become yet another marketing tool for business, but the question is, how many will the market sustain?" asked Rob Enderle, principal analyst at the Enderle Group. "This may not scale to many firms, but a few games could easily capture the imaginations of enough people to make the model viable for the most popular of them."
Still, SCVNGR could make some decent money, at least in the short term.
"This is potentially a better way to engage people than many of the more traditional methods because it builds the marketing into what the user does instead of making it a distraction as most marketing programs do," Enderle told TechNewsWorld. "So the engagement is potentially higher and the value to the advertiser is potentially greater as well."
Further, it's difficult to predict consumer demand.
"Kids may love this one, but it's hard to guess what will go viral," Enderle said.
Take "Farmville," for example. It was highly popular at one time, but seems to have lost some mindshare.
"I haven't seen too many people playing 'Farmville' on Facebook lately," ITIC's DiDio said. "Competition in this area is very fast-paced." 
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