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Journalism of Courage
LinkedIn has introduced a new puzzle game for the 1.2 billion users of its professional social networking app. The game is a miniature version of Sudoku.
Instead of the traditional 9-by-9 grid, Mini Sudoku by LinkedIn is scaled down to a 6-by-6 grid puzzle that is supposed to be completed in two or three minutes. Mini Sudoku becomes harder to solve with every passing day of the week, similar to other puzzle-based games on LinkedIn.
With Mini Sudoku, LinkedIn might be looking to play to the nostalgia of users. It could also lead to healthy competition between colleagues, friends and family members in terms of who can solve the puzzle first. Besides giving users something new to talk about, LinkedIn is likely introducing games on its platforms to boost engagement and user retention times.
“We don’t want to have a puzzle on LinkedIn that takes 20 minutes to solve, right? We’re not games for games’ sake,” Lakshman Somasundaram, a senior director of product at LinkedIn, was quoted as saying by CNBC.
Mini Sudoku was reportedly conceived based on an encounter between LinkedIn executives and Japanese publisher Nikoli, which popularised Sudoku, in Tokyo, Japan last year. Thomas Snyder, a three-time World Sudoku Championship winner, was also involved in helping LinkedIn design its gaming strategy for Mini Sudoku.
Seeking to make the ancient game more accessible, the Microsoft-backed company reportedly designed several prototypes before finalising the version with six rows and six columns of squares.
Mini Sudoku is the sixth game rolled out by LinkedIn so far. Millions of people play games on LinkedIn with 7am ET (4:30 pm IST) being the most popular time among users to play the game and Gen Z users on LinkedIn being the top demographic, a company spokesperson was quoted as saying.
Over 86 per cent of the users who play regularly will return tomorrow, and 82 per cent of them will be playing next week, the spokesperson added.
