iPhone MMOG Going Cross-Platform... Even on PC

Gamers will be able to play Pocket Legends together on the PC, Android devices, and Apple devices.

On Thursday Texas-based game developer Spacetime Studios revealed plans to go cross-platform with its 3D MMO, Pocket Legends. Currently available on Apple’s Apps Store, the studio will develop additional clients for the Android platform and Windows.

Launched earlier this year, Pocket Legends allowed iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad gamers to play together online in a cartoony, fantasy 3D environment. The client was--and still is--free to download and play from iTunes; however the game relies on the microtransaction model, offering premium weapons, armor, quests, extra character slots and more.

Since its original debut, Pocket Legends has become one of the most-downloaded RPGs on iTunes, and has already racked in "hundreds of thousands" of players over the last five months. Its popularity also attracted the attention of Insight Venture Partners, a New York venture capital firm that has also invested in Twitter Inc.

"What attracted us, at first, is there's basically nothing else like it out there at the moment," said Insight managing director Nikitas Koutoupes, an admitted fan of the game. "I'm always anticipating what the next hour will look like. As a form of entertainment, that's hard to replicate."

Insight has invested an undisclosed amount into Spacetime Studios, allowing the latter company to expand the game onto the two additional platforms. According to Spacetime CEO Gary Gattis, the Android and Windows clients will launch within the next few months. Spacetime will also license the engine behind Pocket Legends sometime in 2011, allowing Apple, Android and PC developers to create their own cross-platform titles.

"We think these guys have a great shot at getting this done in a way that's never been done before," Koutoupes added.

Spacetime Studios was formed to work on a previous MMOG project for PC games publisher NCsoft Corp, consisting of veteran developers who previously worked on Star Wars Galaxies and the Wing Commander series. However when the project was cancelled, the team scaled down to six members and began working on the Spacetime Engine. The studio now has ten members and plans to hire on 20 more within the next year.

"Providing players, no matter where they are, with a single deep, seamless 3D MMO gaming experience on multiple devices has been a dream of ours since the company was founded," Gattis said. "We feel we’re at the forefront of a whole new market for MMO game developers."