9 Inch Nails, 2 Millions Users, 4 New Team Members by Bart
September 30th, 2008
We have some exciting announcements today that have people talking about us. Check out the coverage on Techcrunch, the San Francisco Chronicle, Daring Fireball, 9to5Mac and Billboard, Rolling Stones (Spanish), Lefsetz Letter.
Tap Tap Revenge + Nine Inch Nails = HOT
Nine Inch Nails’ legendary Trent Reznor scooped us on his blog: “…In other news, check the iPhone App Store in the coming days. Tapulous is releasing a NIN-branded version of their popular Tap Tap Revenge game featuring music from… that’s right, Nine Inch Nails! More details soon.”
That’s right! We are pleased to announce the first ever special edition of Tap Tap Revenge. The Nine Inch Nails edition of Tap Tap Revenge will go on sale in October and will have 16 specially selected tracks from Nine Inch Nails’ most recent albums, The Slip and Ghosts I-IV, many of them specially edited or mixed for the game. And it will of course have that special NIN look and feel. As far as we know, this is the first significant music partnership of its kind for the iPhone! The game will retail for $4.99.
We are super psyched to have partnered with one of the true visionaries of the music industry for this exciting new initiative. Get ready to pick up your copy of Tap Tap Revenge, Nine Inch Nails Edition in just a few weeks!
2 Million users!
We are delighted to announce that, since the App Store went live less than three months ago, over 2 million users have installed Tap Tap Revenge or Twinkle. Tap Tap Revenge continues to be wildly successful and is garnering worldwide attention – if you’ve visited the Apple.com web site or walked into any Apple retail store lately, you’ve probably noticed Tap Tap Revenge on display.
Today’s announcement with Nine Inch Nails is part of our ongoing efforts to keep improving Tap Tap Revenge. When we launched the game in July, it came with just four tracks. Today, gamers can play to more than 40 great tracks. As part of Tap Tap Thursday, we offer a hot new free track each week. Featured tracks so far have included new or exclusive tracks by hot artists like Everlast, Michael Franti, Bitter:Sweet, Lee Perry, Lady Antebellum and 3OH!3 and typically get downloaded more than 100,000 times over the course of one week. In October, Nate True, the brilliant creator behind Tap Tap Revenge, will release Tap Tap Revenge 1.5, with some killer new features that will take the game to the next level. As in, seriously, you will WANT this new version.
Welcome new team members!
We are pleased to announce four new additions to our team:
- Jessica Kahn has worked at Apple for the last nine years, including as both a manager and an engineer on the Safari team. She will be relocating from Boston to help us manage our engineering organization and brings to the company a wealth of best engineering practices from Apple and elsewhere;
- Kyle Kinkade was an engineer at Microsoft for several years prior to joining Getty Images where he has been heading the iPhone effort (and built several apps!) as Director of Mobile. Kyle has a fantastic eye for product, is an amazing developer and will be a key part of our client development team;
- Zach Allia is a recent Northeastern university grad who built the wildly successful (+10 million users) Free Gifts app on Facebook. Zach will help us understand market opportunities, define new products, and loop back with our community;
- Last, but not least, we are delighted to announce that the legendary Bryan Bell, who (among others) created the Tapulous logo, will be spending more time with us working on graphic and interaction design.
They’re on the way – really
It’s taken us longer than expected but, seriously, Fortune Cookies, Photo Collage and Twinkle 1.2 are all on the way. We hope the apps will be out over the next few days if all goes well.
- Photo Collage is the most beautiful way to share pictures on the iPhone. See pictures from the community, people nearby and your Tapulous friends.
- Twinkle 1.2 is a big improvement on an already awesome app. You’ll be able to preview web pages with the built-in minibrowser, easily follow conversation threads, have more options to view nearby posts, and you’ll be able to block annoying people.
- Fortune Cookie is a simple simple app that does what you think it does – but so deliciously, you’ll want to eat it up. Much kudos to Kyle Macomber, aka “the intern”. You’ll want to check this app before you leave your house each morning.
Keep checking back – October is going a big month for us! And, oh, thanks a two million!
PS: Comments are now open – so please share your thoughts!
September 30th, 2008
that new game looks insane
It makes me laugh because I just posted a new post not 5 minutes ago saying that I want a new version of tap tap revenge
It’s kind of a bummer though that it’s going to cost $5 though I might really consider buying it anyways cause this game rocks!!
As long as the songs in the game are long enough
You guys ROCK!!
September 30th, 2008
Nick,
1- You should *totally* buy the NIN edition: (a) it’s going to be awesome, (b) sounds like you like TTR, so you should support us by buying the premium version!
2- In addition to the NIN edition, we’re working on two (not one!) big new releases of TTR that are going to happen in time for the holidays – stay tune
PS: yeah, some of those songs will be >3 minutes long.
October 1st, 2008
So excited for Twinkle v1.2! Hurry up Apple! Ahhhhhhhh!!!
Photo Collage sounds like it could be cool, I’ll snag that if the price is right
Not a big NIN fan at all, but I really appreciate the doors it could open up for Tapulous, if successful enough. Good luck guys and gal(s)!
October 1st, 2008
Wow 2 million users! Thats crazy!
so congratulations!
Also I hope that the previous beta tester will come in the new team [Because i am also a beta :p]
I am hoping that Collage is coming out soon and Twinkle cause the new features sounds great!
October 1st, 2008
I am super stoked about the NiN Tap Tap! I have been a long time fan and supporter of the band! Plus $5 bucks for an improvment on an already amazing app is a no brainer!
October 1st, 2008
Daan, thanks for the kind words. We want to expand and start using the beta program much more aggressively over the next few weeks – so the answer should be YES.
Kirby, I’ve got the NIN game on my phone, and it’s a blast!
October 1st, 2008
I’m absolutely giddy about the new TTR. Might there be updates to it with more NIN tracks?
I just can’t wait!
October 1st, 2008
I’m glad that your doing this 16 songs for 5 dollars when it would cost 16 dollars seperatly on itunes plus a game awsum I just hope that in the futeur u can add nin song from the new tap tap to the free version so I can have 1 less app on my touch
October 1st, 2008
hi random, we’re trying to think through how to offer the best user experience, so this is definitely on our minds.
October 1st, 2008
If you guys need any beta testers let me know, haha. (Not entirely sure how that would work though) I’ll no doubt be buying this when it comes out. Nitpick: I noticed the NIN logo in the demo video wasn’t quite right…
October 1st, 2008
Congratulations on reaching 2 mill!! Although im not interested in NIN, it still looks awesome. Cant wait to try Collage, and FC. I also look forward to possibly beta testing, now i realize that winning that contest could mean a lot cause of all the changes going around here. Good luck to you guys and I wish you all tons more of success. TAPULOUS ROCK!!
October 1st, 2008
I’m soooo excited by this NIN + Tapulous developments! The demo movie is great… just wish the MOV was compatible with the iPhone [not viewable on iPhone]. By looking at “ttr_nin-peek-comp.jpg” I take that the graphics in the demo movie will be improved upon? The graphics in the jpg look great.
I suppose you don’t need any beta-testers, do you?
October 1st, 2008
I have been a player of The Tap Tap “Series” ever since Tap Tap Revolution. Quite honestly the best game ever for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I know what the new update is going to be. And i will be checking this blog all the time now to get updates on everything Tapulous. Great job guys, you totally deserve it!
October 1st, 2008
So excited for you guys!! Great job once again.
The new game looks great and I just happen to be a huge
NIN fan.
Glad to see your getting the recognition:)
October 1st, 2008
I realize this is probably not the place since it is off subject, but could someone please fix the RSS feed. It has been broke (broken?) for me since “Congratulations Tapulous Winners” Thanks.
October 1st, 2008
I can’t wait for these new editions of TTR I want them so bad as I’m a big fan of you guys
Keep the good work up
Looking forward to the new editions of TTR and the new collage app
October 1st, 2008
When I downloaded TTR and Twinkle, they were free. Why add prices?
October 2nd, 2008
@Chris
Its a special version so its different. Plus tapulous needs money to make apps and pay their staff dont they?
October 2nd, 2008
Hey Bart,
those news are a-friggin-mazing, I just cannot wait to get my fingers on Nine Inch Nails music (literally).
As a marketing student I would absolutely love to read some kind of article or blog entry about how this collaboration got started (who approached whom, issues, …) and how much NIN camp got involved in the development. Maybe asking too much, but think it´d be cool.
Thanks! Juanlu
October 2nd, 2008
Dewey – I will fix the RSS feed today
October 2nd, 2008
Thanks Zach, I appreciate it.
October 2nd, 2008
Fixed it Dewey!
October 3rd, 2008
Is the Twinkle 1.2 udpate even ready. The post said ready in a few days, but how many time have we heard that the 1.2 update would be here soon before. Can we really expect this update to come out in the next couple of days?
October 3rd, 2008
@seth: cross my heart…. it should be out any day now.
October 24th, 2008
When is NIN coming! Must have N I N!
October 25th, 2008
NIN Coming soon
And TTR 1.5 is BRILLIANT! Great new features.
October 25th, 2008
looks wicked! hope it comes soon!
October 25th, 2008
Wait… I’m confused. Is TTR 1.5 free? Or does that cost $5 too?
And wow… an NIN version. I LOVE those guys. If I’m not broke at the time the app comes out, I will buy it XD.
And PhotoCollage too. I think my mind will explode from awesome when that comes out on top of all the other stuff…
October 27th, 2008
This looks killer, Definitely worth a purchase, a Metallica edition would be great in the future
Would love to be a Beta tester, if your needing one.
Thanks
October 29th, 2008
I can’t wait but will the NIN nails version and collage be definitely coming out in October because well there’s only 2 days left. Has there been a delay or does Ireland get things later (tap tap Thursdays have been on time)????