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Matchmaking service Partie wants to pay you to play video games

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With more and more games embracing crossplay between platforms, services that allow you to coordinate with your PC and console friends will become more necessary. Partie, with its extensive matchmaking tools, is looking to be that service, and hoping that its paid subscription will help financially reward its users and keep toxic players at bay.

A social platform with a gaming focus

There are several elements to Partie that come together to create not only a matchmaking tool, but a social platform. The feed can be curated based on users that you follow, or certain posts related to games. It can also be set to a global feed, pulling in everyone’s posts in a single timeline to open the user up to new gamers and titles.

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From there, players can begin matchmaking using robust customization options. Players can create a general “partie” for a game, or tailor it to a specific objective they’re looking to accomplish. It can be set to a certain skill level or welcome in players of all abilities –t he level of specificity is up to the creator of the partie.

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Frankie Colamarino and Will Wheeler, the co-founders of the company, are hoping that those levels of minute detail will make for a more enjoyable and useful experience.

“Matchmaking is a persistent challenge in networked multiplayer games and is becoming more complex as the global boom of gaming and esports continues,” said Colamarino. “Low accuracy, painfully long wait times, and negative experiences among players have become several of its hallmarks. Partie is dedicated to ‘keeping gamers in game’ by creating more optimal experiences for players of all backgrounds, preferences, and skill levels.”

There’s money to be made

The other side of Partie is its monetization. Being a part of the community isn’t free after the first month. It requires a monthly subscription of $5 in the U.S. The hope is that this will not only create a safer environment for its users by keeping out disruptive players, but will play a part in funding its most engaged users.

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Bounties will be connected to weekly parties created by the platform itself, and completing certain challenges can net its users a payout. Players can also earn money by becoming a partner on the platform, something the founders assured is a much easier thing to achieve than on other services like Twitch. And since there’s no barrier of live-streaming, this opportunity is open to many more gamers.

“In the current landscape, opportunities to make money playing games are generally scarce. On average, roughly 1 percent of major streaming platform users actually earn revenue because not everyone who plays games wants to or has the ability to stream,” said Wheeler. “When you couple that with the realities of advertising-centric revenue models and the high barriers to entry in the competitive scene, there are very few achievable earning opportunities for the everyday gamer. We’re addressing this with our Partner Program, while also fostering a positive community for players.”

This isn’t the first platform to attempt this

The core idea of Partie — creating a platform to matchmake with friends — isn’t new. In fact, there are a ton of websites and apps already out there designed for that specific purpose. Many of them are free, and some even offer advanced features like audio and video chat, something the Partie team isn’t currently looking to incorporate into their platform.

Partie is hoping that its monetization and reward system for its users will create a more dedicated platform, one that gamers feel incentivized to grow. For those who want to check it out for themselves, Partie is open now on browsers, with a mobile app coming in January.

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Tom Caswell
Tom Caswell
Professional video producer and writer, gaming enthusiast, and streamer! twitch.tv/greatbritom
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