Jam.gg (formerly Piepacker)

Jam.gg, formerly known as Piepacker, is a web-based platform that combines online multiplayer gaming with video chat, allowing people to play "couch" games together remotely without shared hardware. The catalogue spans retro titles, PC indie games and board games, and sessions run directly in the browser with no download or installation required. Built-in voice and video chat, customizable game rooms and cross-platform compatibility are core parts of the product.

The company positions accessibility as its central design goal, relying on a patented technology that it states reduces internet bandwidth requirements by a factor of about 15 on average, enabling play on constrained connections. The company was founded in 2020 and participated in Y Combinator's Summer 2020 batch, operating from San Francisco. In 2023 the project branched into two separate companies: Jam on one side and Onibi (onibi.gg) as its own entity, with Y Combinator on both cap tables.

Founding story

Co-founded by Benjamin Devienne, previously in gaming at EA, Ubisoft and Gameloft, where he created and scaled data science, and later Head of Analytics at Facebook and Head of Research at Twitch; and Jules Testard, a former academic researcher at UCSD and software engineer at AWS, Docker and Madhive.

Business model

Consumer-facing platform offered on a freemium basis, with a free tier starting at $0 per month and paid features above it.

Freemium consumer subscription/pricing model beginning at $0 per month.

Latest developments

In 2023 the project separated into two companies, Jam and Onibi (onibi.gg); Y Combinator subsequently lists Jam.gg (formerly Piepacker) as inactive.