LinkedIn is shaking things up by officially launching three new games on its platform in an effort to attract more users and boost engagement. The games, Queens, Crossclimb, and Pinpoint, are designed to test logic, trivia, and word association skills, respectively.

Players are limited to playing each game once a day, but can invite their first-degree connections to play together. The games were developed by the LinkedIn News team, taking inspiration from the success of word and logic puzzles in newspapers.

LinkedIn is adamant about keeping the games separate from Microsoft, with plans to continue developing them independently. The platform is aiming to emulate the success that games have had in driving engagement for news publishers.

Queens is a Sudoku-inspired game, Crossclimb is a trivia game, and Pinpoint focuses on word association. LinkedIn intends to keep gameplay short and contained to prevent users from spending too much time.

The goal is for the games to expand engagement, advertising audience, and provide added value to users. By incorporating games into the platform, LinkedIn hopes to offer a more casual way for users to connect and interact. This move could potentially lead to increased user retention and growth for the site.

Overall, LinkedIn is using games as a strategic tool to increase engagement and offer a more interactive experience for its users. It will be interesting to see how these new additions will impact the platform’s overall user experience and growth in the coming months.