Whatever Happened to Swan Games?
Great Bridge Links | 2024 | Alex J. Coyne
Online bridge platforms like Bridge Base Online (BBO) and RealBridge dominate the playing field. However, many smaller bridge platforms still provide a fun way to play the game—and for nostalgic reasons, every once in a while, I’ll dig out the classic Grand Slam Bridge for DOS.
Swan Games used to be one of the premier bridge sites in the early-2000s. Today, bridge newcomers might not even remember its existence—and even though an attempted revival in 2023 aimed to bridge Swan Bridge back to our screens.
Whatever happened to Swan Games?
Here’s a look at the once-popular online bridge platform, and where its glory days went.
Swan Games: The First Incarnation
Swan Games was first started in April 2000, according to the company’s founding information.
Bridge stalwarts might fondly remember it as one of the very first online bridge communities—and also one of the first websites to introduce camera connections between players.
Swan Games offered robust features, including real-time scoring, customizable tables, and interactive player communication, which were innovative for its time. The site was commonly listed as one of the strongest competitors to Bridge Base Online (BBO). It’s even mentioned on their main Wikipedia page. Swan Games stood out for its unique platform, easy interface, and its worthiness in masterpoints as one of only a handful of masterpoint-supportive platforms.
Over time, competition from other online bridge platforms like Bridge Base Online (BBO) led to a decline in Swan Games’ user base. BBO’s broader feature set and larger community became significant challenges. By the late 2010s, Swan Games faced operational difficulties, leading to a reduction in its offerings. Many bridge players assumed it had ceased operations.
The first incarnation of Swan Games officially closed in 2022.
Less than a year after its closure, a post on BridgeWinners announced that Swan Games was making a comeback.
Swan Games: The 2023 Return (That Didn’t Happen)
In September 2023, Adam Parrish posted the following message in a larger BridgeWinners post:
”Swan Games is back! We’re starting with a limited schedule of ACBL masterpoint games beginning this week. We’ll be adding more as our community grows.”
Swan Games was bought by a group headed by Adam Parrish and the owners of Honors Bridge Club in New York and has been completely rebuilt from the ground up.
From late-2023 to early-2024, it seemed that the Swan Games platform had made a full return. Users could play their tournaments once more, and the YouTube channel posted various tutorials that you can still find online. It featured integrated audio and video communication, allowing players to interact during games. Swan Games also introduced a profit-sharing initiative for clubs and educators allowing them to earn a portion of the profits generated from their players, supporting the broader bridge community. With all these features, the new Swan Games looked promising.
Comments on the BridgeWinners post are filled with thoughts and criticisms, with some users pointing to concerns regarding some of the fine print. While there are some encouraging and positive comments, overall criticism paints a picture of a bridge site that couldn’t be ressurected without a significant amount of further development. In defense of BridgeWinners, in many ways the forum encourages review and feedback which can seem overly critical.
By November 2023, the thread had garnered more than 184 comments.
While some users signed up for tournaments, some immediately complained about the scope of available games—and the lack of users on the platform.
This isn’t an issue limited to bridge platforms, but affects many different multiplayer games, many of which are still online as completely abandoned virtual landscapes that one player will occasionally make their way through.
Interject a fun Youtube video on this topic:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hgEblNSDGVQ
User Phillip Articola commented:
“I find it bizarre how no one, and I mean not one person, had signed up for the tournaments on this site over the past three months or so. It’s like people think you can get the plague by signing up. I would sign up and then wait for other pairs to sign up from someone on this planet, but No, it never happened.”
Around the middle of 2024, the site went offline again. Visiting the Swan Games dot com home page at the time of this writing (that is, December) returns an unsuccessful result.
While founder Adam Parrish still appears to run the site AdamParrishBridge.com, Swan Games appears to have reached its swan song.
I was able to get hold of Adam Parrish and asked him about the game, here is his response.
Hi Alex. We bought Swan Games and totally revamped it. We launched and offered ACBL duplicate games. We weren’t able to get enough interest and ran out of money and have shut down, at least for the time being. Not a great story.
So – if anyone wants a ready-made duplicate bridge platform ready for play, maybe give Adam Parrish a call!
