For its part, Sun got a potentially large software platform and the licensing fees that go with it.

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Today more than 50 million players enjoy our games, a number that grows daily through a diverse business model that includes direct-to-consumer websites, social game development, and cross platform publishing, licensing, and technology.

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Punch eventually hopes to have three revenue streams: advertising (advertisers can sponsor their own apps on the shelf), premium access and licensing of the platform to other publishers.

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Atari (www.atari.com) is a multi-platform, global interactive entertainment and licensing company.

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In the meantime, he noted that the company is focused on continuing to secure as much content as possible while expanding its platform through new hardware and OEM licensing with TV manufactures.

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Although many consumer game devices eventually turn a profit, they often hit the market as a loss leader, herding gamers into a closed ecosystem and securing a revenue stream for the manufacturer -- every Nintendo, Xbox or PlayStation game made funnels a small licensing fee to the owner of the platform.

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The new release supports the Steam Play licensing system, meaning a customer can purchase it for one desktop platform and play it on another at no extra cost.

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Instead, the company would be acting as a platform for providing digital music content from providers such as Spotify that already have their music licensing in place.

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