GameCrush Crushed

The GameCrush Public Beta didn't last long (started March 23rd, 2010). According to their new homepage the service has temporarily shut down to upgrade the hardware used to support the service. GameCrush saw high demand when as many as 10,000 people visited the site in 5 minutes. This influx of traffic brought their servers to a crawl making the dating service unusable.

GameCrush offers online dating with a small twist. Like other dating sites you setup your dating profile and then you can search for singles. Once you find a few matches, you can communicate with them via email or live chatting with text or video if they are online. What GameCrush does differently is they also offer games for would be daters to play (called PlayDates). These games (like pool) also offer video chatting to make the experience more personal and to help break the ice during conversation. This is a great idea and may be finally what takes video dating into the main stream.

I was also surprised to learn that GameCrush will also offer the service for the Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE network and for games like Call of Duty, Halo 3 and Gears of War. They also promise it on other platforms like the Playstation 3 and World of Warcraft. I am not sure on how they plan to implement this service on the gaming consoles but I would think, you would need a seperate laptop or something.

Not much on pricing has been released yet about GameCrush. All we know is games with GameCrush PlayDates start at $6.60 for ten minutes of play.

For more on the story, read Canoe.