Kuju boss confirms move out of mobile market

Kuju Entertainment boss Ian Baverstock has confirmed that the company is moving away from mobile gaming, blaming the "tight stranglehold" operators have on the market.

Speaking in an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, Baverstock said, "We're increasingly stepping away from mobile, we've found it a difficult market, one where it's hard to make money.

"There was too little development money and the retail income just didn't build like we'd hoped it would. There are people who are making money and doing a good job, but it wasn't for us."

As a result, Kuju has now sold its mobile publishing division and its mobile development business is "pretty much shut down now", according to Baverstock.

"The nail in the coffin for us was the increasingly tight stranglehold which the operators held over the flow of content to the consumer - they seem to have no interest in developing it as a market," he explained.

"Mobile is a pretty flawed model right now. Not enough money is spent, there's too much porting and testing required and the games are often poor quality."

So is there any chance of Kuju ever returning to the mobile gaming market? "Things would have to improve an awful lot," Baverstock concluded.

Kuju's six UK studios will continue to focus on PC and console games and, following a recently announced share deal, the company is now looking to expand. To find out more, visit GamesIndustry.biz later this week.