Game Centre
Now defunct, the Habbo Game Centre was the main portal for all games released within Habbo.
These games weren't the usual user-made games, but instead games which had been developed by third party developers and added onto the hotel.
The idea behind this initiative was to relaunch Habbo as a gaming platform rather than a pure chatsite, following the Channel 4 scandal of 2012. The Game Centre was launched while Paul LaFontaine was in charge as CEO of Sulake - LaFontaine had a background in social network gaming having previously worked for Zynga, the creators of popular Facebook game FarmVille, amongst others.
There were 10 games in total in the Game Centre, 9 of which were by a third party developer and just one developed by Habbo itself.
The Habbo-developed game was Snow Storm, the only game which strictly stuck to the Habbo character style. The majority of other games had their own style of graphics although some did include aspects of the usual Habbo design, such as Fast Food featuring the user's style and Matchwood using some old Habbo badges.
Reception
All of the games included in the Games Centre had very mixed reviews.
Initially, many players were put off by the idea and thought it may ruin the look and feel of Habbo, although as time went on more and more users began to warm to the Game Centre. When the first game developed by a third party developer was added to the hotel, a new prize was also added to the hotel as an incentive to get people to take part - the top player and 4 randomly selected runners up of the game Fast Food could win the Big Ruby and Small Ruby, worth 200 and 75 credits respectively.
This did spark interest in the early days but players soon got tired of the game and in May 2013 the prize was completely removed due to a some players cheating using multiple accounts to guarantee a ruby.
Many of the games offered achievements as an extra incentive to the game although many of these were very hard to earn, such as placing first in the leader board for a certain number of weeks.
There was also a social aspect to many of the games in that players could compete against other Habbos from around the globe in games such as Hero Zero and Habbo Speedway, whilst other games such as World of Zombies played on the social side of Habbo even more. World of Zombies fully integrated the Habbo Friends List and when a friend started playing the game, they would automatically appear on a user's friend list within the zombie game, allowing users to send each other gifts, visit their friend's island and send items required from a wishlist.
List of games
- Snow Storm
- Fast Food
- Habbo Pix
- Habbo Speedway
- World of Zombies
- Permia Duels
- Tetrablok
- Matchwood
- Streetz
- It Girl
- Hero Zero
- Nova Raider
Closure
Due to declining user interest, the Game Centre, and all games associated with it, were removed from Habbo in 2014.