Tag: sega mobile games

Mobile games distribution startup in Singapore gets huge investment from Sega

| December 8, 2015

goGame is receiving millions in funding from Sega Networks which decided against opening an office there.

While Sega Networks could just as easily have opened up its own office location in Singapore, it has chosen to place its mobile games brand under the control of a startup there called goGame, under its head, David Ng.

The developer has been recreating its mobile gaming strategy for several months it chose to invest in the startup.

The choice will allow Sega, a Japanese company that specializes in video and mobile games, to allow goGame to spend its energies on localization, marketing and customer service, while it keeps it resources dedicated to its own top priorities and strengths. In that light, it has made a multimillion dollar investment into the Singapore company and announced this choice at an event in the new office of that startup business.

Sega has shown a massive amount of trust in this investment of its mobile games through goGame.

Mobile Games - SegaBy the time of the writing of this article, no precise amount of the actual investment had been disclosed to the media. It was, however, pointed out that Incubate Ventures, Japanese VC firm still in its early stages, also contributed to the investment in the startup.

The CEO of goGame, David Ng, said at the launch party that “People keep telling me that I’m crazy. To build Gumi to the global stage for three and half years and then just leave. People said, why did you leave? Who in their right minds would leave? But I’m excited to show you what I have.”

Ng is no new entrant into this space. His flagship product called goPlay has changed the way developers are able to launch, market, and support their mobile games through a convenient drag and drop service that is free-to-publish. Now, with goGame, it is possible for software development kits (SDKs) to be dropped into a game to fix issues or better the customer management, localization, worldwide marketing, payment and even 24/7 live operations of a game. Alternately, if a developer were to attempt to use the traditional means of replicating the SDKs on their own, it could take as long as months, depending on what the purpose of the change is meant to be.

Sega drops its below-standard mobile games

| May 25, 2015

The company had previously stated that it would be removing apps that didn’t meet their standards.

Back on May 8, Sega announced that it would be taking down a list of titles of mobile games that had not been meeting its standards for the type of playing experience that it wanted to provide to players, though it did not release the names of the titles at that time.

What was known was that the unwanted mobile apps would be removed from all major app stores.

The company was presumably working on its strategy to place a greater focus on mobile games as it moved away from the console experience. It said that the apps that it would be removing were titles that they considered to be unable to meet their current standards. This announcement was made close to another one that was released by the company that said that players could expect to see 20 new titles in the near future, each of which would have “console quality”.

The mobile games that Sega has now removed have come down from all app stores, regardless of the platform.

Mobile Games - Game Apps RemovedThe initial list of mobile game apps that have been pulled from the Sega catalog include: After Burner Climax, Altered Beast, Ecco the Dolphin, Golden Axe 1, 2 and 3, Jet Set Radio, Phantasy Star II, Space Harrier II, Streets of Rage 1 and 3, Super Monkey Ball 1 and 2, Super Monkey Ball Tip’n’Tilt 1 and 2, and Virtua Fighter 2.

Sega has explained that if one of these games had already been purchased by a mobile device user ahead of the removal of the option from the app stores, it should still be possible for that person to download it, even though it is no longer available for sale. However, the company also pointed out that there will be no more support provided for that game. It is, therefore, available only to be downloaded and played until the time comes that it will “becomes incompatible with the latest phone operating systems or hardware,” at some point in the future.

That said, the company also suggested that this may not be the end of those mobile games, as “given the right situation,” they may look into recreating the apps within “an updated form.” Sega has not provided any more details about which games could potentially reappear in the future.