LinkedIn reveals first games you can play while pretending to work

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Just weeks after the company confirmed that it would be bringing an online gaming experience to the social networking platform, LinkedIn has delivered its first thinking-oriented games.

The decision to add games, according to LinkedIn, was one designed to help break down the barriers of social interactions and foster a more communicative working environment.

Company Editor-in-Chief and VP Daniel Roth announced the addition of three new games to the platform on May 1.

You can play these games on LinkedIn

The trio of launch games, which can be found under the LinkedIn News module, will include Pinpoint, where users can guess the common theme among a series of words; Crosslimb, with comprises trivia questions and word placement challenges; and Queens, which has been compared to a combination of Sudoku and Minesweeper.

Roth added: “You’ll be able to play each game once a day, see other connections who have played that day and engage in some friendly rivalry with leaderboards.”

Back when rumours were first circulating the Internet about gaming coming to LinkedIn, a company spokesperson told us that new “puzzle-based games” would be rolled out across the platform “to unlock a bit of fun, deepen relationships, and hopefully spark the opportunity for conversations.”

Historically a place for networking with colleagues and associates, LinkedIn expanded to include more hiring efforts and training opportunities. More recently, and in the wake of a multibillion-dollar investment into ChatGPT maker OpenAI by parent company Microsoft, LinkedIn has received a number of generative AI enhancements.

With the launch of in-platform gaming, it’s clear that LinkedIn sees itself as much more than a business platform nowadays, and with the likes of Elon Musk’s (controversial) X attempting to become a ‘catch-all’ app, maybe Microsoft wants a slice of that pie too?