GameTap Owner Metaboli Sees 120% Q1 Growth

French digital distro company and GameTap owner Metaboli saw revenues 120 percent in 2009's first quarter, and expects to grow over 100 percent for the rest of the year. The company, which allows people to pay a monthly fee for access to a multitude of PC games or buy titles outright, attributes its success to publishing partners such as Rockstar, Paradox and Epic Games – the latter of which signed a three-year deal for the Unreal back catalog earlier in the week. Specific promotions, including a recent 75 percent discount on selected Sega titles, have also proven successful - with a 25-fold increase in sales during the limited time offer. "Our triple-digit growth is based on strong fundamentals, namely the introduction of a very attractive promotional plan to our customers and having the largest digital video games catalogue in Europe," says vice president of marketing & product Jerome Gayet. Gayet says Grand Theft Auto IV, Football Manager 2009 (aka Worldwide Soccer Manager 2009) and F.E.A.R. 2 were the company’s bestselling games of the first quarter of 2009. Content VP Pierre Forest adds: "During the first quarter of 2009 we bolstered our offering with exclusive games launches, including Codemasters’ Leisure Suit Larry: Box Office Bust and digital exclusive launches, such as Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 – Uprising." The company, which acquired a majority of Turner-owned North American digital download service GameTap in September 2008, is also in the process of relaunching that brand into a Metaboli technology-powered site.