Tapjoy giving small devs mobile and social boost

Tapjoy has announced plans to launch a new self-publishing platform for mobile and social games developers called Tapjoy Publishing.

This platform will allow developers to self publish to users of Tapjoy's existing customer network, managing their own monetisation options as they see fit. Tapjoy's income comes from the fees imposed on those monetisation options.

The monetisation services provider's chief executive, Mihir Shah, argues that the new platform will enable smaller developers to compete with the likes of EA in smartphone marketplaces by giving them the same advantages, reports Venturebeat.

"We're in the unique position of being able to turn great but undiscovered apps into major hits by leveraging our mobile social distribution platform," said Shah. "And we encourage developers to stay independent. We become a real alternative."

This sentiment – that the smallest game developers should be able to compete on a level footing with the big companies – is unlikely to quell the concerns of Nintendo president Satoru Iwata who, at GDC last month, argued the mass of cheap, low-quality games on mobile platform were "drowning" traditional game development – threatening its survival.

Tapjoy, which claims to have in the region of 5000 developers and advertisers using its tech, recently revealed that they had received $21 million in new funding after enjoying their most profitable fiscal quarter ever.